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-TENRY  VAN  DYKE 


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*  JUN  2  1903   * 


Van  Dyke,  Henry,  1852-1933 
The  open  door 


THE   OPEN    DOOR 


Henry  van  Dyke,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


v/ 


i2sii2t: 


^be  ipreabpterian  ipulptt 

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THE   OPEN    DOOR 


y 
HENRY  VAN   DYKE 

Moderator  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Fourteenth  General  Assembly 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America 


PHILADELPHIA 

PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD   OF   PUBLICATION 
AND  SABBATH-SCHOOL  WORK 

1903 


Copyright,  1903,  by 
HENRY    VAN    DYKE. 


Published  April,  iqoj 


CONTENTS 


I.  The  Open  Door 

II.  Resurrection  Now   . 

III.  A  Divine  Impossibility    . 

IV.  Salt 

V.  A  Brief  for  Foreign  Missions 

VI.  The  Making  of  St.  John 

VII.  The  Angel  of  God's  Face 

VIII.  Real  Life         .... 


PAGE 

3 
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43 
63 

85 
109 

125 

149 


THE   OPEN   DOOR 


THE  OPEN  DOOR 


THE  OPEN  DOORi 

"  I  am  the  door :  by  me  if  any  man  enter  in,  he  shall  be  saved, 
and  shall  go  in  and  out,  and  find  pasture." — John  x.  9. 

Christ  taught  by  pictures  as  well  as  by  para- 
bles. He  came  into  the  world  to  be  the  Saviour 
of  men.  What  that  meant  in  all  its  fullness  could 
not  be  put  into  any  doctrine,  any  theory,  any 
description.  So  Christ  looked  around  Him  in 
the  world  of  life,  and  whatever  He  saw  that  was 
beautiful  and  useful  and  precious  He  claimed  and 
used  as  a  picture  of  Himself. 

"You  do  not  know,"  He  said  to  men,  "you  do 
not  know  what  my  coming  to  you  really  means. 
You  think  that  I  have  come  merely  to  teach  you 
something  or  perhaps  to  do  something  for  you. 
No :  I  have  come  to  be  something  in  your  life. 
All  that  is  best  and  most  needful  and  most  glo- 

1  Moderator's  sermon   at  the   One  Hundred   and   Fourteenth 
General  Assembly,  New  York,  May,  i8,  1902. 

3 


4  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

rious  is  but  a  tyge  and  symbol  of  what  I  am.  I 
am  the  bread  of  heaven,  I  am  the  water  of  Hfe,  I 
am  the  hght  of  the  world,  I  am  the  true  vine,  I 
am  the  good  shepherd,  I  am  the  lamb  of  God,  I 
am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life." 

Among  these  "  I  ams  "  of  Christ,  the  picture  in 
the  text,  "  I  am  the  door,"  seems  at  first  lowly 
and  commonplace,  not  worthy  to  be  compared 
with  the  other  images  which  our  Lord  uses  to 
reveal  Himself  A  door  is  an  ordinary  affair, 
made  by  man,  for  an  everyday  purpose.  We 
pass  through  a  hundred  doors  daily  without 
noticing  them.  But  think  for  a  moment  what  the 
door  means ;  what  is  its  real  significance  in  life  ? 

The  door  is  the  way  of  entrance  into  any 
building  or  structure.  It  signifies,  therefore,  the 
right  of  admission  to  all  that  the  building  stands 
for.  The  open  door  says  "  Come  in."  In  the 
home,  the  door  means  access  to  the  inner  circle 
of  love  and  joy  and  peace.  In  the  fojjxess,  the 
door  means  escape  from  danger,  entrance  into 
safety  and  security.  In  the  tenijple  the  door 
means  the  right  of  approach  to  the  mercy-seat 
of  God,  the  privilege  of  communion  with  those 
who  worship  and  serve  Him.  Thus  in  all  ancient 
religions  the  doorway  was  regarded  as  a  sacred 
place.     The  threshold  of  the  house  was  the  prim- 


THE  OPEN  DOOR  5 

itive  altar,  and   the  threshold-covenant  was  one 
of  the  earliest  forms  of  religion. 

But  the  door  is  not  only  the  way  of  entrance. 
It  is  also  the  way  of  egress.  It  leads  in  and  it 
leads  out.  It  is  the  symbol  of  liberty  as  well  as 
the  symbol  of  peace.  A  door  through  which  you 
can  pass  only  in  one  direction  is  not  a  door :  it  is 
a  trap.  The  dwellers  in  a  human  home  use  the 
door  not  only  to  enter  into  their  place  of  rest  but 
also  to  go  out  to  their  places  of  work.  The  door 
of  the  fortress  would  not  fulfill  its  purpose  if  it 
only  let  the  garrison  in ;  it  must  also  swing  free 
to  let  the  soldiers  forth  to  battle  and  conquest. 
The  temple  doors  invite  the  worshipers  to  praise 
God  in  the  sanctuary;  but  they  also  remind  us 
of  the  duty  and  privilege  of  going  out  from  the 
holy  place  to  serve  God  in  the  world. 

■f  Inward  and  outward — both  ways  the  true  door 
invites  us.  Protection  and  freedom ;  safety  and 
struggle ;  worship  and  work ;  life  enfolded  in 
peace,  and  life  enlarged  in  power — this  is  the  two- 
fold significance  of  the  door.  And  this  is  what 
Christ  means  when  He  says  to  us,  "  I  am  the 
door :  by  me  if  any  man  enter   in,  he    shall    be 

i  saved,  and  shall  go  in  and  out,  and  find  pasture." 

How  true  it  is ;  and  yet  how  often  we  forget  it, 

how   little   we    understand  its   full    and  glorious 


6  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

meaning!  Christ  is  the  way  into  peace.  By  Him 
we  have  access  to  the  Father,  forgiveness  for  our 
sins,  reconciliation  with  God,  dehverance  from 
evil,  security  from  death,  comfort  and  rest,  and 
the  promise  of  everlasting  life — how  blessed  is 
the  entrance  into  these  things  through  the  grace 
of  Jesus  Christ!  It  is  like  coming  up  from  the 
wilderness  where  tempests  rage  and  wild  beasts 
are  lurking  and  robbers  seek  their  prey,  at  the 
close  of  day,  when  the  shades  of  night  are  fall- 
ing, and  finding  the  door  of  the  sheepfold  open, 
and  passing  in  to  security  and  peace.  Nothing 
can  surpass  the  sweet  repose  of  the  heart  when 
it  takes  refuge  in  Christ. 

"  Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul, 
Let  me  to  Thy  bosom  fly, 
While  the  billows  near  me  roll, 
While  the  tempest  still  is  high."    ' 

That  sweet  old  song  is  the  first  message  of  the 
gospel,  the  message  that  meets  the  deepest  need 
of  a  lost  and  perishing  world.  Nothing  can  ever 
change  that  message.  Nothing  can  ever  take  its 
place. 

But  this  refuge,  this  restfulness,  is  not  the 
whole  of  salvation.  To  be  truly  saved,  thor- 
oughly saved,  means  something  more  than  com- 


THE  OPEN  DOOR  7 

ing  into  security  and  peace.  It  means  also 
going  out  to  a  richer,  fuller  life,  a  broader, 
deeper  usefulness,  a  larger  joy  of  noble  work. 
Full  salvation  is  active  as  well  as  passive.  It 
includes  deliverance  from  danger  and  consecra- 
tion to  duty.  It  ransoms  the  soul  from  sin  in 
order  to  set  it  free  for  service.  The  soul  that  is 
saved,  goes  in  to  God  and  out  to  life;  and  every- 
where, inward  and  outward,  it  finds  through 
Christ  what  it  needs — protection  to  safeguard  it, 
rest  to  refresh  it,  pasture  to  strengthen  it,  work 
to  discipline  and  unfold  it.  "  I  am  come,"  says 
Christ,  "  not  only  that  they  might  not  die,  but 
that  they  might  have  life,  and  that  they  might 
have  it  more  abundantly." 

Christ's  two  commands  are  "  Come  "  and  "  Go  " 
— invitation  and  liberation.  As  Phillips  Brooks 
interprets  it :  discipleship,  which  sits  at  His  feet 
to  learn,  and  apostleship,  which  goes  out  into  the 
world  to  work. 
r  "  Come  and  see,"  He  says  to  Andrew  and 
Philip  and  Nathaniel,  come  and  see,  that  you  may 
believe  in  me.  And  then  "  Go  and  tell  John  what 
things  you  have  seen  and  heard,"  that  my  grace 
may  be  known  through  you  to  all  men. 

"  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."     And  then  "  Go 


8  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

work  to-day  in  my  vineyard.  Go  ye  therefore, 
and  teach  all  nations." 

Let  me  speak  for  a  few  moments  of  Christ  as 
the  living  door  through  whom  those  who  have 
entered  into  peace  with  God  go  out  to  a  larger, 
freer,  nobler  life. 

I.  Through  Christ  our  thoughts  go  out  into 
liberty. 

It  is  common  to  speak  of  the  unbelief  which 
rejects  Christ  and  His  teaching,  and  of  the  attempt 
to  solve  the  mystery  of  life  without  religion,  as 
"  free  thought."  No  name  could  be  more  false 
and  misleading.  The  thought  which  refuses 
to  go  beyond  the  evidence  of  the  senses ;  the 
thought  which  has  no  explanation  for  our  deepest 
affections,  our  most  ardent  longings,  our  loftiest 
aspirations,  except  to  say  that  they  are  dreams 
and  illusions ;  the  thought  which  has  nothing  to 
say  about  the  origin  of  our  spiritual  nature  and 
no  answer  to  give  to  our  burning  questions  about 
the  eternal  future ;  the  thought  which  knows  no 
more  of  God 

"  than  sheep  or  goats, 
That  nourish  a  bhnd  life  within  the  brain," 

is  not  free  thought.  It  is  captive  thought,  en- 
slaved thought,  imprisoned  thought.     Christ  opens 


THE  OPEN  DOOR  9 

a  door  in  the  blank  wall  with  which  unbelief 
would  shut  us  in.  He  tells  us  that  He  comes 
from  the  spiritual  world,  and  that  He  returns 
thither.  He  has  seen  it ;  He  is  sure  of  its  reality  ; 
He  testifies  of  that  which  He  has  seen  and  speaks 
of  that  which  He  knows.  He  bids  us  trust  our 
spiritual  instincts  even  more  than  we  trust  our 
senses.  He  assures  us  that  the  hunger  and  thirst 
after  righteousness  is  a  prophecy  that  the  soul 
shall  be  filled,  that  purity  of  heart  is  a  pledge 
that  we  shall  see  God.  He  does  not  give  us  a 
definition  of  God.  Definitions  are  limitations.  He 
gives  us  a  vision  of  God.  Vision  is  liberation. 
"  Look  out  through  me,"  He  says  to  us,  "  and 
you  shall  see  the  Father.  For  the  Father  is  in 
me,  and  I  in  Him.  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath 
seen  the  Father." 

What  is  it  that  we  see  in  Christ  ?  Holiness,  and 
justice,  and  truth,  and  mercy,  and  kindness,  and 
pity,  and  wisdom,  and  love.  Through  that  door 
our  thoughts  go  out  to  seek  after  God,  not 
blindly,  but  with  a  Divine  guidance.  All  that  is 
holy,  all  that  is  true,  all  that  is  good,  all  that  is 
spiritually  lovely,  belongs  to  God.  It  is  but  the 
broken  image  and  reflection  of  the  perfect  light 
of  His  countenance  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ. 
Every   gleam   of    glory   that    flashes    upon    our 


lo  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

souls  as  we  wander  freely  through  the  world  of 
thought,  like  every  ray  of  radiance  that  we  see 
upon  the  breast  of  the  moving  waters  beneath 
the  stars,  is  an  evidence  and  interpretation  of  the 
eternal  light,  which  is  God. 

Take,  for  example,  that  one  word  in  which 
Christ  teaches  us  all  to  call  God  "our  Father." 
No  dark  prison  of  doubt  can  confine  us,  no  for- 
bidding walls  of  austere  doctrine  can  shut  us  in, 
while  we  have  that  door  by  which  our  souls  may 
go  out.  Who  can  question  a  father's  wisdom? 
Who  can  fathom  a  father's  love?  Who  can 
exhaust  the  resources  of  a  father's  tenderness  and 
care? 

What  does  fatherhood  mean  ?  I  speak  out  the 
experience  of  an  earthly  fatherhood  that  has 
blessed  my  whole  life.  It  means  tenderness,  for- 
bearance, watchfulness,  firmness  to  counsel  and 
rebuke,  pity  for  my  worst,  sympathy  for  my  best, 
a  golden  friendship,  an  undying  love.  If  earthly 
fatherhood  means  all  that,  how  much  more  does 
heavenly  fatherhood  mean ! 

We  come  to  Christ  with  our  doubts  and  ques- 
tions and  perplexities.  He  tells  us  that  the  great 
God,  the  sovereign  Ruler  of  the  universe,  is  our 
Father.  Our  questions  are  not  all  answered,  but 
our  way  is  open.     Doubts  may  still  shadow  our 


THE  OPEN  DOOR  il 

path,  but  they  cannot  stay  our  steps.  They  are 
no  longer  a  wall,  but  a  mist,  through  which  we 
press  onward  toward  the  light. 

Christ  is  the  door  of  our  faith.  There  is  no 
advance  in  religious  knowledge  except  through 
Him.  There  is  no  revision  of  creeds  save  that  to 
which  He  leads.  Without  Him  there  may  be 
change.  But  the  only  possible  improvement  is 
to  tune  the  music  of  our  faith  more  closely  to  the 
keynote  of  His  name.  Every  forward  movement 
must  be  through  Christ. 

His  word  is  our  chart.  His  spirit  is  our  guide, 
His  person  is  our  star.  Our  motto  is,  "Not  a 
new  gospel,  but  more  gospel."  Advance  in 
theology  through  Christ,  means  the  outgoing  of 
the  soul  into  life  with  God,  with  new  experiences, 
new  wonders,  new  glories  unfolding  every  day. 
Beloved,  now  we  know  in  part.  But  we  know. 
And  the  door  that  opens  before  us  into  a  wider, 
richer,  truer  knowledge  of  God,  is  Jesus  Christ, 
who  is  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory  and 
the  express  image  of  His  person. 

n.  Through  Christ  our  affections  and  sympa- 
thies go  out  into  liberty. 

The  love  of  Christ  is  the  type  of  all  true  and 
noble  love  because  it  does  not  narrow  the  heart, 
but  expands  it  and  makes  it  overflow  with  blessed 


12  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

and  generous  feelings.  Contrast  Him  with  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees.  Their  doctrine  was  **  Love 
thyself  well,  and  give  what  is  left  over  to  those 
who  will  pay  for  it."  Christ's  doctrine  is  "  Love 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself,  and  give  freely  because 
thou  hast  freely  received." 

He  would  have  us  love  Him  first  and  most, 
because  He  is  our  Saviour,  because  He  has  given 
Himself  to  us  and  for  us.  But  He  would  have  us 
love  every  one  else  better,  because  we  love  Him 
best. 

Nothing  in  the  world  can  so  enlarge  the  heart 
and  set  its  sympathies  free  to  go  out  to  all  men 
as  a  true  knowledge  of  Christ  and  a  true  devotion 
to  Him.  When  we  enter  through  Him  into  the 
secret  of  what  real  love  means — when  we  learn 
from  Him  that  it  is  not  getting  but  giving,  and 
that  the  heart  finds  its  deepest  joy  in  bestowing 
happiness  upon  others,  then  the  door  is  open  and 
we  may  go  out  and  find  pasture. 

Think  how  Christ  lived  in  the  world.  How 
closely  He  was  in  touch  with  all  sorts  and  condi- 
tions of  men.  How  He  understood  the  little 
children  and  rejoiced  in  their  confidence.  How 
He  took  part  in  all  human  joys  and  sorrows,  from 
the  wedding  feast  to  the  funeral.  How  He 
entered  into  the  trials  and  conflicts,  the  perplexi- 


THE  OPEN  DOOR  13 

ties  and  aspirations,  the  weariness  and  the  hope, 
of  human  nature  everywhere.  Whose  thoughts 
did  He  not  read  ?  Whose  wishes  did  He  not 
fathom  ?  Whose  real  needs  did  He  not  minister 
unto  ? 

He  draws  each  one  of  us  in  by  sympathy  with 
us,  in  order  that  our  hearts  may  go  out  in  sym- 
pathy with  Him.  Through  the  hps  of  that  dis- 
ciple whom  He  loved  He  says  to  us,  "  Love  not 
the  world " — the  sensuous  perishing  order  of 
existence  which  is  separate  from  God — "  neither 
the  things  that  are  in  the  world."  But  the  people 
that  are  in  the  world — the  suffering,  struggling 
souls,  enslaved  by  its  evil,  deceived  by  its  follies, 
starved  by  its  famine ;  all  sorts  of  people  that  are 
weary  and  heavy  laden ;  all  sorts  of  people  that  are 
climbing  upward  and  lending  a  hand  to  others ; 
all  sorts  of  people  that  need  God's  love  and  ours, 
Jesus  would  have  us  love,  even  as  He  loves  us. 

Faith  in  Christ  rewrites  the  old  motto.  Not 
"  Liberty,  equality,  fraternity."  But  first,  frater- 
nity, which  lifts  men  into  equality  and  so  fits  them 
for  liberty.  Faith  in  Christ  makes  us  acknowl- 
edge brotherhood  with  all  who  are  trying  to  cast 
out  devils  and  heal  the  sick,  whether  they  follow 
with  us  or  not.  Faith  in  Christ  says,  "  He  that  is 
not  against  us  is  for  us." 


14  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

I  have  no  confidence  in  that  kind  of  Chris- 
tianity which  will  not  join  hands  with  an  honest 
Hebrew  to  relieve  suffering  and  enlighten  igno- 
rance. I  have  no  confidence  in  that  kind  of 
Protestantism  which  refuses  to  take  hold  of  one 
end  of  the  litter  in  which  a  wounded  man  is 
lying  because  a  Roman  Catholic  has  hold  of  the 
other  end.  I  have  no  confidence  in  that  kind  of 
Presbyterianism  which  lives  in  hostility  and  hatred 
toward  Christians  who  have  other  creeds  and 
forms  of  worship.  I  have  no  confidence  in  that 
kind  of  a  church  which  resembles  a  private  relig- 
ious club,  caring  only  for  the  comfort  and  respect- 
ability of  its  members,  unreasonably  sure  of  its 
own  salvation  and  unreasonably  indifferent  to  the 
salvation  of  the  world. 

I  believe  in  that  Presbyterianism  which  is  evan- 
gelical and  evangelistic,  which  loves  the  old 
gospel  so  much  that  it  cannot  keep  it  to  itself, 
and  which  has  no  rivalry  with  any  other  church 
except  to  try  who  can  do  the  most  good  in  the 
world.  I  believe  in  a  church  which  goes  out, 
through  Christ  and  with  Christ,  to  seek  and  to 
save  the  lost.  I  believe  in  a  Christianity  which  is 
a  giving,  forgiving,  sympathizing,  sacrificing,  self- 
forgetting,  and  happy  life  of  ministry  to  the  souls 
of  others.     And  I  believe  that  the  perfection  and 


THE  OPEN  DOOR  15 

everlasting  continuance  of  that  life  is  the  joy  of 
heaven. 

"  Rejoice,  we  are  allied 
To  that  which  doth  provide 
And  not  partake,  effect  and  not  receive ; 
A  spark  disturbs  our  clod — 
Nearer  we  held  of  God 
Who  gives,  than  of  his  tribes  that  take,  I  must  believe." 


f — 


III.  Through  Christ  our  best  activities,  our 
noblest  powers  of  effortand  achievement,  go  out 
into  liberty. 

Let  us  admit  frankly  that  the  Christian  life  has 
its  restrictions,  its  limitations,  its  constraints.  It 
does  cut  a  man  off  from  some  things  which 
attract  and  tempt  him.  It  does  interpose  a  bar- 
rier between  the  heart  and  some  of  its  desires. 
It  involves  sacrifice,  resignation,  giving  up. 
There  is  a  sense  in  which  the  acceptance  of  Christ 
means  the  withdrawal  from  the  old  sphere  of  life, 
the  entrance  into  a  new  and  hidden  sphere,  the 
seclusion  and  separation  of  the  soul. 

But  think  for  a  moment  on  which  side  of  our 
nature  it  cuts  us  off.  Is  it  not  the  lower  side,  the 
baser  side,  the  perishing  side  ?  What  are  the 
things  that  must  be  given  up  ?  What  are  the 
activities  from  which  it  withdraws  us  ?  Selfish 
ambition,  sensual  lust,  frivolous  dissipation,  heart- 


1 6  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

less  conflict  with  our  fellow-men,  hopeless  pursuit 
of  empty  pleasures,  weary  service  of  insatiable 
passions.  These  are  activities,  it  is  true,  but  they 
are  activities  of  death,  not  of  life.  To  be  cut  off 
from  them  is  to  be  set  free  from  them.  It  is  not 
to  enter  a  narrower  life :  it  is  to  come  in  through 
Christ  to  a  deeper,  truer,  quieter,  happier  life. 

Tell  me  one  thing,  my  friend,  that  you  would 
have  to  resign  if  you  accepted  Christ,  and  I  will 
tell  you  that  without  that  thing  you  would  be 
far  purer,  stronger,  happier,  better  fitted  to  live 
than  you  are  to-day.  If  you  give  it  up,  if  you 
leave  it  behind  you  and  enter  into  salvation 
through  Christ  the  door,  you  will  find  that  same 
cioor  open  before  you  to  activities  that  are 
unspeakably  nobler,  pleasures  that  are  infinitely 
more  satisfying,  and  rewards  that  are  immeas- 
urably richer. 

For  this  is  what  Christ  does  for  the  man  who 
comes  in  through  Him.  He  gives  that  man  a 
new  hope,  a  new  inspiration,  a  new  motive  and 
power  of  effort,  a  new  force  of  love  and  courage 
in  all  his  faculties,  and  then  sends  him  out  again 
into  the  world  to  live  and  to  work  with  all  his 
energies. 

What  good  thing  is  there  that  Christ  will  not 
let   you    do  if  you  take    Him   as  your  Master? 


THE  OPEN  DOOR  17 

Nay,  what  good  thing  is  there  that  He  does  not 
want  you  to  do,  and  to  do  it  better,  more  ear- 
nestly,  more  thoroughly,  for  His  sake  ? 

[  I  am  not  speaking  vaguely.  I  am  talking  to 
men  and  women  whose  lives,  whose  duties,  whose 
perils,  whose  tasks,  whose  opportunities,  here  in 
this  great  city,  I  know.  I  say  to  you  that  what- 
ever your  real  life  and  whatever  your  right  work 
may  be,  you  will  live  it  better,  you  will  do  it  more 
honestly  and  more  thoroughly,  if  you  go  out  to 
it  through  the   door  which  is  opened  to  you  by 

I  J^^s  o^  Nazareth. 

Christ  came  into  the  world  to  sanctify  all  forms 
of  honest  human  toil  and  all  tasks  of  vital  human 
effort.  Christ  came  into  the  world  not  to  sepa- 
rate men  from  life,  but  to  bring  true  happiness 
into  life.  Christ  came  into  the  world  to  conse- 
crate humanity  to  a  holy  priesthood,  serving  God 
in  the  ritual  of  the  common  life.  The  activi- 
ties that  mar  and  weaken  and  destroy  humanity, 
He  would  check  and  crush  out.  The  activities 
that  develop  true  manhood  and  womanhood  and 
make  the  world  a  better  place  to  live  in,  He  would 
encourage  and  enlarge.  He  came  to  break  down 
the  false  distinction  between  the  sacred  and  the 
secular.  There  is  no  clean  and  honest  work  in 
this  world  which  may  not  be  done  in  Christ's 
2 


i8  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

name,  and  done  a  little  better  because  the  work- 
man calls  Jesus  his  Master. 

"  Every  mason  in  the  quarry,  every  builder  on  the  shore, 
Every  woodsman  in  the  forest,  every  boatman  at  the  oar, 

"  Hewing  wood  and  drawing  water,  splitting  stones  and  cleaving 
sod. 
All  the  dusty  ranks  of  labor  in  the  regiment  of  God, 

"  March  together  toward  His  triumph,  do  the  task  His  hands  pre- 
pare;/ 
Honest  toil  is  holy  service,  faithful  work  is  praise  and  prayer." 

But  more  than  this — He  calls  each  one  of  us 
to  go  out  through  Him  to  a  new  and  wonderful 
task.  It  is  the  task  of  transforming  the  kingdoms 
of  this  world  into  the  kingdom  of  our  God  and  of 
His  Christ ;  the  task  of  drawing  the  world  back 
from  darkness  and  sin  and  sorrow  to  the  love  of 
the  heavenly  Father. 

This  is  the  great  object  for  which  the  Church 
exists.  She  is  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth,  but 
it  must  always  be  an  evangelistic  witness,  a  mis- 
sionary witness.  The  first  article  in  her  commis- 
sion is  not  to  define,  not  to  organize,  not  to  build, 
not  to  devise  liturgies,  but  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature.  And  this  work  must  begin  at 
home,  in  our  own  country,  in  order  that  it  may 
overflow  to  every  country  in  the  world.  A  free 
church  in  a  free  state  is  the  finest  result  of  noble 


THE  OPEN  DOOR  19 

and  enlightened  politics.  A  preaching  church  in 
a  listening  land  is  the  best  product  of  religious 
freedom.  A  whole  country  won  for  Christ  is  the 
greatest  service  that  can  crown  the  labors  of  a 
loyal  and  believing  church. 

The  Master  calls  us,  my  brethren,  to  go  out, 
through  Him,  to  this  glorious  task.  Every  one 
of  us,  young  and  old,(learned  and  unlearned,  lay- 
men and  clergymen,  women  and  children^every 
one  of  us  may  have  a  share  in  the  work.  There 
is  something  for  every  one  to  do. 
I  By  the  wayside,  in  a  country  where  I  often  go 
I  to  rest  in  the  summer,  there  is  a  small,  cool, 
crystal  spring ;  and  by  the  spring  there  is  a  little 
cup,  hanging  on  the  broken  branch  of  a  tree ;  and 
that  silent  cup  says  clearly  that  the  Avater  flows 
for  every  one  who  is  thirsty  and  will  stoop  down 
to  drink.  By  the  spring  of  the  water  of  everlast- 
ing life  there  is  also  a  cup  which  tells  the  same 
story.  But  it  is  not  for  you  alone.  Not  far 
away  there  is  sure  to  be  a  little  child  waiting  for 
you  to  give  the  cup  of  cold  water  in  the  Master's 
I  name. 

There  is  a  place  in  Christ's  army  for  every  soul 
that  belongs  to  Him,  and  a  spot  on  the  battlefield 
where  each  soldier  is  needed. 

In  a  certain  battle,  not  long  ago,  the  officer  of 


20  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

a  battalion  arrived  late.  Dashing  up  to  his  chief, 
he  asked  where  he  should  lead  his  troops.  "  Go 
where  you  please,"  was  the  answer,  *'  there  is 
good  fighting  all  along  the  line." 

Yes,  there  is  good  fighting  all  along  the  line 
for  Christ!  In  heathen  lands  and  in  our  own 
land ;  in  the  university  and  in  the  market  place ; 
in  society  and  on  the  frontier ;  in  the  home  and  in 
the  mission  school — all  along  the  line  thousands 
of  places  where  loyal  soldiers  can  do  glorious 
service  for  Christ  and  their  fellow-men.  But  you 
must  go  out  to  do  it. 

You  must  not  shut  yourself  up  in  your  religion 
as  if  it  were  a  prison.  You  must  issue  forth  from 
it  as  the  home  in  which  you  have  found  peace  for 
your  heart,  and  strength  for  your  work,  and  in- 
spiration for  your  duty.  Christ  must  be  your 
door,  by  whom  you  go  in  to  God  and  out  to 
man. 

Come  in,  then,  my  friend,  whose  siris  are  unfor- 
given,  whose  soul  is  unsatisfied,  whose  heart  is 
heavy  laden — come  in,  through  Jesus,  to  pardon, 
peace,  and  rest. 

Go  out,  then,  my  friend,  whose  faith  is  still 
unproved  by  works,  whose  nature  is  still  unde- 
veloped by  service,  whose  life  is  still  narrowed 
and  imprisoned  by  self,  go  out,  through  Christ, 


THE  OPEN  DOOR  21 

to  a  broader,  nobler,  happier  life  than  you  have 
ever  lived  before  : — 

"  The  freer  step,  the  fuller  breath, 
The  wide  horizon's  grander  view, 
The  sense  of  life  that  knows  no  death, 
The  life  that  maketh  all  things  new." 


II 

RESURRECTION   NOW 


II 

RESURRECTION  NOWi 

"  If  ye  then  be  risen  with  Christ,  seek  those  things  which  are 
above,  where  Christ  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God." — Col. 
iii.  I, 

Resurrection  is  a  great  word.  It  has  a  power 
to  stir  the  mind,  a  charm  to  quicken  the  imagina- 
tion, and  an  attraction  to  draw  the  heart.  What 
thoughtful  person  can  repeat  that  sentence  of  the 
Creed  which  says  of  Christ,  "  the  third  day  He 
rose  again  from  the  dead,"  and  then  add  that 
triumphant  utterance  of  death-defying  faith,  "  I 
beHeve  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body,"  without 
a  great  thrill  of  hope  and  joy? 

But  these  two  thoughts  of  resurrection  do  not 
exhaust  its  meaning.  It  is  more  than  a  sublime 
fact  in  the  past.  It  is  more  than  a  glorious  event 
in  the  future.  It  is  an  experience  in  the  present. 
It  is  happening  to-day.  At  this  very  moment  a 
new  and  eternal  life  is  unfolding  within  human 
souls  and  transforming  human  bodies  in  fellow- 
ship with  Christ.     At  this  very  moment  men  and 

^  Baccalaureate  sermon,  University  of  Missouri,  June  i,  1902. 

25 


26  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

women  are  passing  from  death  unto  life,  from 
darkness  to  light,  from  the  perishing  to  the 
imperishable,  by  vital  union  with  the  spirit  of 
Jesus. 

Here,  then,  is  the  great  thought  which  the 
text  flashes  into  our  souls.  There  is  a  Resur- 
rection Now.  There  is  a  triumph  over  death  for 
which  we  do  not  need  to  wait  until  the  graves  are 
opened.  We  may  have  it  at  once.  There  is  a 
victory  of  life  for  which  we  do  not  need  to  look 
to  some  far-distant  morning.  We  may  feel  it 
to-day.  St.  Paul  felt  it  as  he  sat  in  his  Roman 
prison,  writing  to  his  friends  at  Colossae.  Worn, 
and  feeble,  and  aged  before  his  time,  bound  with 
chains,  waiting  for  his  trial  before  a  cruel  and 
bloody  Caesar,  St.  Paul  knew  even  then  that  he 
was  a  risen  man.  By  faith  in  the  things  that  are 
unseen  and  eternal  he  had  already  won  the  vic- 
tory over  the  world.  In  prison  he  was  free,  in 
weakness  he  was  strong,  in  chains  he  was  cheer- 
ful, in  exile  he  was  exultant,  in  trouble  he  tri- 
umphed, and  in  the  drear  winter  of  old  age  his 
spirit  was  quickened  with  an  immortal  spring. 
Surely  this  is  a  veritable  resurrection,  and  they 
who  have  entered  into  such  an  experience  are 
risen  indeed. 

But   this    risen   life   is   under  a  law.     Like  all 


RESURRECTION  NOW  27 

other  forms  of  life  it  has  a  condition  which  must 
be  fulfilled  in  order  that  the  life  may  continue  to 
exist  and  expand.  It  is  of  this  law  of  the  risen 
life,  it  is  of  this  condition  under  which  alone 
Resurrection  Now  can  become  a  real  and  abiding 
experience  within  us,  that  I  wish  to  speak  to  you. 
The  subject  is  important.  If  we  can  learn 
even  now  the  secret  of  rising  from  the  dead, 
there  is  no  other  knowledge  worthy  to  be  com- 
pared with  this.  And  surely  the  subject  is  appro- 
priate. It  is  the  season  when  nature  has  put  on 
a  new  life.  All  round  us  the  visible  emblems 
of  vitality  are  unfolding.  The  old  earth,  after  her 
long  sleep  in  winter's  lap,  stirs  at  the  touch  of 
summer,  stretches  her  arms,  smiles  like  a  child 
waking  at  sunrise,  and  laughs  with  a  thou- 
sand melodies  of  joy.  How  beautiful  it  all  is. 
How  deeply  it  speaks  to  our  longing  hearts.  It  is 
the  time  of  unfolding  life  in  your  experience  also. 
You  are  in  the  flood-tide  of  summer,  my  friends, 
and  the  time  for  the  singing  of  birds  has  come. 
Youth  means  liberation,  enlargement,  unfolding. 
To  some  of  you  this  Commencement  season 
brings  a  new  period  of  existence,  as  you  step 
across  the  threshold  of  the  university  into  the 
larger  school  of  the  world.  To  all  of  you  I  trust 
it  brings  new  thoughts,  new  hopes,  new  purposes, 


28  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

new  ideas  of  what  it  means  to  live.  It  is  a  privi- 
lege to  speak  to  you,  and  I  should  be  glad  indeed 
if  I  could  make  that  privilege  a  power.  A  power 
it  would  be  if  your  hearts  would  but  receive  this 
day,  and  keep  for  ever,  the  Law  of  Resurrection 
Now. 

"  If  ye  then  be  risen  with  Christ,  seek  those 
things  which  are  above ^  where  Christ  sitteth  on  the 
right  hand  of  God!' 

What  does  it  mean  to  seek  those  things  that 
are  above  ?  Where  is  it  that  Christ  sitteth  on 
the  right  hand  of  God  ?  Surely  not  in  some 
distant  region,  invisible  and  inaccessible  to 
mortals.  To  read  the  law  of  the  risen  life 
thus  would  be  to  rob  it  of  its  meaning  and  its 
power  for  the  present  moment.  God  is  not 
secluded  in  some  far-off  heaven.  He  is  dwelling 
and  working  in  this  very  world  where  we  live. 
His  "  right  hand "  is  manifest  in  all  His  works 
of  wisdom  and  righteousness  and  goodness  and 
love.  Christ  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  His 
Father  because  He  is  exalted  to  share  in  all  these 
glorious  works,  because  He  is  the  Mediator 
between  the  divine  and  the  human,  because  His 
spirit  brings  men  into  harmony  with  God  and 
inspires  the  pure  and  holy  thoughts,  the  just  and 
noble  deeds,  the  generous  and  blessed  affections 


RESURRECTION  NOW  29 

that  lift  the  world.  He  is  not  far  away  from  us. 
He  is  with  us  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world.  He  sitteth  close  beside  us,  breaketh  bread 
at  our  tables,  walketh  with  us  in  the  city  streets 
and  among  the  green  fields  and  beside  the  sea. 
The  "  things  that  are  above  "  are  the  things  that 
belong  to  Him  and  to  His  kingdom,  the  spiritual 
realities  of  a  noble  life,  whatsoever  things  are 
pure  and  lovely  and  of  good  report.  These  are 
the  things  that  we  are  to  seek.  We  are  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  perishing  and  the  imperish- 
able. We  are  to  choose  in  every  action  between 
the  higher  and  the  lower  end.  We  are  to  cling 
to  that  which  is  fine  and  generous  and  true,  and 
cut  loose  from  that  which  is  coarse  and  selfish 
and  false.  We  are  to  turn  away  from  that  which 
drags  us  downward  and  makes  us  hke  the  beasts, 
and  follow  after  that  which  draws  us  upward 
toward  the  Hkeness  of  Christ.  That  is  the  law 
of  Resurrection  Now.  Those  who  have  risen 
must  be  ever  rising.  The  resurrection  life  must 
be  an  upward  life. 

Let  us  try  to  carry  this  law  into  some  of  the 
different  spheres  of  our  existence.  Let  us  try  to 
see  how  the  things  that  are  above  mingle  with 
the  things  that  are  beneath  all  through  the  world, 
and  how  our  present  life,  by  lofty  choice,  and  by 


30  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

fellowship  with  Jesus,  may  be  made  a  daily  resur- 
rection and  ascension. 

I.  Look  first  at  the  aspects  of  the  natural  world 
in  which  we  live.  Are  there  not  two  sides  here — 
a  lower  side  and  a  higher — one  which  ministers 
to  sense  alone  and  another  which  ministers  to 
spirit  ?  The  procession  of  the  seasons,  the  secret 
forces  of  chemistry  and  physics  and  biology,  are 
working  together  for  the  supply  of  our  bodily 
needs.  They  warm  and  feed  and  clothe  us.  But 
if  we  look  only  at  this  side  of  nature,  if  we  regard 
this  wonderful  world  only  as  our  dormitory,  our 
wardrobe,  our  feeding-trough,  we  are  receiving 
from  it  only  the  least  and  lowest  of  its  gifts.  It 
has  a  nobler  service  to  render  to  our  souls,  a 
revelation  of  wisdom  and  beauty,  a  message  of 
joy  and  peace,  a  gift  of  spiritual  instruction  and 
comfort.     Wordsworth  was  right  when  he  said : — 

"  One  impulse  from  a  vernal  wood 
May  teach  you  more  of  man, 
Of  moral  evil,  and  of  good, 
Than  all  the  sages  can." 

When  we  look  only  at  the  sensuous  side  we  may 
read  nature  as  a  grocer's  account  book,  but  when 
we  look  at  the  spiritual  side  we  begin  to  interpret 
nature  as  a  divine  poem.     There  are  some  people 


RESURRECTION  NOW  31 

in  the  world,  and  very  decent  people  too,  to 
whom  the  returning  summer  cannot  mean  much 
more  than  it  means  to  a  comfortable  cow — a  time 
of  physical  pleasure,  when  there  are  no  more 
blizzards,  and  it  is  easy  to  move  about,  and  there 
are  plenty  of  green  things  to  eat  But  there  are 
others  to  whom  it  means  a  blossoming  of  thankful 
thoughts,  a  rapture  of  gentle  affections,  a  promise 
of  new  and  immortal  life.  I  once  heard  an 
Englishman,  looking  down  upon  the  glittering, 
motionless  billows  of  the  Mer  de  Glace,  remark 
that  "  all  that  ice  would  bring  a  lot  of  money  in 
the  hot  season  at  Calcutta — don't  you  know?" 
The  poet  Coleridge,  in  his  "Hymn  at  Sunrise  in 
the  Vale  of  Chamouni,"  hears  those  silent  cata- 
racts of  frozen  splendor  singing  the  eternal  praise 
of  God.  It  is  always  open  to  us  to  choose,  my 
friends,  whether  we  will  fix  our  regards  upon  the 
lower  or  upon  the  higher  side  of  nature.  We 
have  two  pairs  of  eyes,  one  of  the  sense  and  one 
of  the  soul.  The  spiritual  vision  seeks  the  things 
that  are  above.  To  look  up  is  to  aspire.  To 
aspire  is  to   rise. 

"  The  beauty  to  perceive  of  earthly  things, 
The  mounting  soul  must  heavenward  prune  her  wings." 

II.  In  the  sphere  of  human  intercourse  we  find 


32  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

the  same  division  between  the  higher  and  the 
lower.  There  are  two  paths  in  love  and  friend- 
ship. One  leads  downward,  with  pride  and  folly, 
selfishness  and  lust  as  guides,  toward  the  earthly, 
the  sensual,  and  at  last  the  devilish.  The  other 
leads  upward,  with  purity  and  honor,  generosity 
and  self-sacrifice  as  guides,  toward  the  celestial, 
the  ideal,  the  God-Hke.  Love  is  a  fire ;  some- 
times it  kindles  a  harbor  light  to  guide  the  heart 
to  peace ;  sometimes  it  kindles  a  false  beacon  to 
lure  the  heart  to  wreck.  There  is  a  friendship 
which  saves,  and  there  is  a  friendship  which  ruins. 

What  are  you  seeking  in  human  intercourse  ? 
That  is  the  crucial  question.  It  is  said  that  a 
man  may  be  known  by  the  company  he  keeps. 
Not  always.  He  may  be  better  known  by  the 
purpose  with  which  he  keeps  it.  The  Pharisees 
kept  company  with  respectable  folk,  and  found 
dead  men's  bones.  Christ  kept  company  with 
publicans  and  sinners,  and  found  hidden  treasure. 

If  you  are  seeking  in  your  fellow-men  that 
which  ministers  to  ambition  or  avarice  or  sensu- 
ality, if  you  are  trying  to  make  friends  simply  in 
order  that  they  may  help  you  to  secure  certain 
advantages  in  the  world  of  wealth  or  fashion,  if  you 
are  forming  ties  of  intimacy  whose  chief  attrac- 
tion  lies  in  their  appeal  to  that  which  is  selfish 


RESURRECTION  NOW  33 

and  greedy  and  base  in  your  nature,  then  you  are 
surely  on  the  descending  path.  But  if  you  are 
looking  for  that  which  is  best  in  the  men  and 
women  with  whom  you  come  into  contact ;  if  you 
are  seeking  also  to  give  them  that  which  is  best 
in  yourself;  if  you  are  looking  for  a  friendship 
which  shall  help  you  to  know  yourself  as  you  are 
and  to  fulfill  yourself  as  you  ought  to  be ;  if  you 
are  looking  for  a  love  which  shall  not  be  a  flatter- 
ing dream  and  a  madness  of  desire,  but  a  true 
comradeship  and  a  mutual  inspiration  to  all 
nobility  of  living,  then  you  are  surely  on  the 
ascending  path. 

Men  tell  you  that  you  must  "  know  the  world." 
Yes,  it  is  true,  unless  you  are  to  be  helpless 
babies  all  your  lives,  you  must  acquire  some  of 
this  knowledge.  But  never  suppose  that  it  con- 
sists only  or  chiefly  of  a  knowledge  of  evil.  The 
world  is  not  a  pesthouse,  nor  is  life  a  complica- 
tion of  diseases.  The  true  physiology  is  a  science 
of  health.  The  deepest  knowledge  of  human 
nature  has  for  its  guiding  light  the  desire  to  dis- 
cover that  which  is  best  in  humanity.  Study 
vices  less  and  virtues  more.  Make  your  contri- 
bution to  society  as  a  believer  in  pure  woman- 
hood and  worthy  manhood,  as  an  encourager  of 
faith  and  hope  and  charity,  as  a  leader  and  helper 

3 


34  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

in  the  upward  path,  as  a  friend  of  true  friendship, 
and  a  lover  of  noble  love.  Do  not  waste  your 
life  in  analyzing  the  pollutions  of  the  social  atmos- 
phere, but  bring  into  it  the  breath  of  a  purer  spirit. 

"  Be  a  breeze  from  the  mountain  height ; 
Be  a  fountain  of  pure  delight ; 
Be  a  star  serene, 
Shining  clear  and  keen 
Through  the  darkness  and  dread  of  the  night; 
Be  something  holy  and  helpful  and  bright, — 
Be  the  best  that  you  can  with  all  your  might." 

III.  When  we  turn  to  the  region  of  art  and 
literature  do  we  not  find  two  paths  here  also  ? 
There  is  noble  music  which  cleanses  the  heart 
like  a  tide  from  the  sea,  sweeping  away  all  things 
that  are  low  and  base,  filling  it  with  high  thoughts 
and  generous  desires.  There  is  mean  music  that 
plays  upon  the  strings  of  sensual  passion  and 
vulgar  mirth,  strumming  and  tinkling  a  fit  accom- 
paniment to  the  reckless  dance  of  ephemeral 
souls  above  the  cataract  of  fatal  folly,  or  beating 
a  brutal  march  for  the  parade  of  pride  and  cruelty 
toward  the  pit  of  death.  There  are  pictures  that 
immortalize  the  great  moments  of  history,  the 
fine  aspirations  of  humanity,  the  fair  scenes  of 
nature.  There  are  pictures  that  lavish  all  the 
resources  of  the  most  consummate  art  to  perpetu- 


RESURRECTION  NOW  35 

ate  the  trivial  and  the  vile.  There  are  dramas 
that  speak  of  heroism  and  virtue,  and  purify  our 
hearts  with  pity,  fear,  and  love.  There  are  plays 
that  present  life  as  a  coarse  and  tedious  farce,  or 
glorify  indecency  and  unfaithfulness,  or  make  a 
bitter  jest  of  the  impotence  of  ail  goodness  and 
the  tragic  failure  of  all  high  aims.  There  are 
books  which  store  the  memory  with  beautiful 
images  and  gentle  pleasures  and  fine  ideals.  There 
are  books  which  leave  a  bad  taste  in  the  mind, 
and  weaken  every  fiber  of  spiritual  courage,  and 
poison  the  springs  of  imagination  at  the  fountain- 
head.  It  is  for  us  to  choose  in  which  of  these 
two  paths  of  art  we  will  walk.  It  is  for  us  to 
choose  whether  we  will  have  for  our  companions 
the  poets  like  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  Words- 
worth and  Tennyson,  who  reveal  human  nature 
in  the  light  of  duty  and  courage  and  hope,  or  the 
writers  like  Byron  and  Swinburne,  Baudelaire  and 
de  Musset,  who  flatter  sensual  passion  and 
darken  spiritual  faith.  The  choice  determines 
our  destiny.  Our  intellectual  nature  is  like  the 
chameleon ;  it  takes  color  from  that  on  which  it 
feeds.  Tell  me  what  music  you  love,  what 
dramas  are  your  favorites,  what  books  you  read 
when  you  are  alone,  and  I  will  tell  you  which  way 
you  are  moving,  upward  or  downward. 


36  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

IV.  Look  now  for  a  moment  at  the  great  com- 
mon sphere  of  human  labor,  and  see  how  the  two 
sides  of  Hfe  are  contrasted  here.  In  one  aspect, 
all  the  varied  toil  of  mankind  is  only  the  mass 
of  separate  efforts  by  which  each  individual  earns 
daily  bread  and  amasses  wealth,  little  or  much. 
He  who  thinks  of  it  merely  in  this  aspect,  drops 
into  it  as  a  mechanical  routine,  plods  along  in  it 
like  a  horse  in  a  treadmill,  now  resolutely,  now 
wearily.  The  only  possible  result  of  all  his  toil  is 
what  he  can  get  out  of  it  for  himself  And  that 
is  limited  by  his  capacity  for  eating  and  drinking 
and  putting  on  of  raiment.  The  sting  of  actual 
hunger  and  thirst  and  discomfort  is  a  stimulus  up 
to  a  certain  point.  But  once  beyond  that  point, 
there  is  nothing  to  animate  endeavor  except  cer- 
tain preferences  for  rich  and  unwholesome  food 
instead  of  plain  and  wholesome  food,  and  for 
costly  and  inconvenient  clothing  instead  of  simple 
and  convenient  clothing,  and  perhaps  a  strange 
desire  to  heap  up  money  merely  for  the  sake  of 
possession.  The  human  being  who  looks  on  labor 
from  that  side  is  certainly  seeking  the  things  that 
are  beneath. 

But  there  is  another  way  of  regarding  the  toil 
of  life.  It  is  a  divine  task  laid  upon  mankind  by 
the  Creator  for  the   conquest  and   cultivation  of 


RESURRECTION  NOW  37 

the  natural  world.  Human  labor  is  a  vast  con- 
federation against  want  and  barbarism  on  behalf 
of  civilization — a  cooperation  for  the  emancipation 
of  mankind  from  the  crushing  pressure  of  physi- 
cal necessities  in  order  that  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  powers  of  man  may  be  unfolded.  Toil 
itself,  performed  in  this  spirit,  is  a  discipline  for 
the  soul,  a  medicine  for  sloth  and  vice,  a  teacher 
of  self-restraint,  patience,  and  courage.  When  we 
begin  to  perceive  these  things  we  see  a  new  mean- 
ing in  our  work,  whatever  it  may  be.  We  can 
put  heart  into  it,  and  be  proud  and  glad  of  doing 
it  well.  We  can  lift  it  above  its  conditions  by 
seeking  the  things  that  are  above  it.  We  can 
make  it  a  vocation ;  a  mission ;  a  secret,  divine 
enterprise. 

V.  Yes,  my  friends,  this  division  between  the 
things  that  are  above  and  the  things  that  are 
beneath  runs  through  our  whole  life.  Even  relig- 
ion has  a  higher  side  and  a  lower  side,  and  upon 
our  choice  between  these  two  sides  depends  the 
influence  which  religion  is  to  have  upon  our 
destiny.  There  is  a  type  of  religion  which  con- 
sists chiefly  of  abstract  doctrines  embodied  in  a 
system,  and  another  which  consists  chiefly  of 
outward  ceremonies  arranged  in  a  ritual.  In  one 
case  all  the  stress  is  laid  upon  the  correct  state- 


38  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

ment  of  these  doctrines ;  in  the  other  case  the 
emphasis  falls  upon  the  punctual  performance  of 
these  ceremonies.  When  the  system  is  subscribed, 
when  the  ritual  is  observed,  all  is  done  that  is 
necessary  for  salvation. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  creeds  are  useless. 
They  are  as  essential  to  theology  as  grammars 
are  to  literature.  Nor  do  I  dream  that  there  can 
ever  be  a  church  without  some  forms  of  worship. 
They  are  as  needful  as  tactics  are  to  an  army. 
But  when  we  mistake  these  things  for  the  reality 
of  religion,  when  we  rest  in  them  and  repose 
upon  them  as  sufficient  to  insure  our  personal 
salvation,  then  we  forget  to  seek  the  things  that 
are  above.  Inevitably  such  a  religion  must 
become  a  sensuous,  selfish,  sinking  religion. 

Far  above  it  shines  that  blessed  state  of  daily 
dependence  upon  God  and  intercourse  with  Him, 
of  real  fellowship  with  Christ  and  likeness  to  Him, 
of  constant  service  and  sacrifice  for  our  fellow-men, 
in  which  alone  pure  and  undefiled  religion  is 
found.  That  is  what  we  are  to  seek  just  because 
it  is  above  us.  We  are  not  to  be  satisfied  with 
our  poor  little  orthodoxies  or  our  vain  little  here- 
sies. We  are  not  to  make  puppets  of  ourselves 
in  our  tiny  rituals,  and  content  our  souls  with  the 
smell  of  incense  or  the  singing  of  psalms.     We 


RESURRECTION  NOW  39 

are  not  to  settle  down  comfortably  in  the  convic- 
tion that  we  are  to  be  saved  and  raised  from  the 
dead  at  the  last  day.  We  are  to  look  and  long 
and  struggle  upward,  we  are  to  rise  with  Christ 
now  toward  the  things  that  are  above. 

Will  you  take  a  motto  for  your  spiritual  life? 
It  is  not  an  inscription  for  your  tombstone : 
"  Resurgmn,  I  shall  arise,  when  earthly  life  is 
over,  when  the  graves  unclose."  It  is  a  watch- 
word for  your  hearts :  "  Resiirgo,  I  arise,  I  am 
delivered,  I  am  quickened,  I  begin  to  live  upward, 
through  Christ,  for  Christ,  unto  Christ." 


Ill 

A   DIVINE   IMPOSSIBILITY 


Ill 

A  DIVINE   IMPOSSIBILITY 
"  God,  that  cannot  lie." — Titus  i.  2. 

This  verse  touches  a  point  in  which  God  differs 
from  man.  For  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  men 
can  lie,  and  that  very  frequently  they  do.  They 
have  a  natural  faculty  for  it,  which  needs  only  to 
be  exercised  to  develop  into  an  acquired  facility. 
The  great  poet  has  described  the  case  very  sug- 
gestively in  the  passage  where  he  makes  Hamlet 
say  that  playing  on  the  recorder  is  "  as  easy  as 
lying."  Successful  falsehood,  like  skillful  play- 
ing, is  an  art  which  must  be  learned  by  practice. 
But  merely  to  say  the  thing  that  is  not,  is  no  more 
difficult  than  blowing  into  a  flute.  Any  man  that 
has  breath  can  tell  a  plain  lie. 

Now  the  text  declares  that  what  is  possible 
with  man  is  impossible  with  God.  He  cannot  lie. 
And  you  remember,  at  once,  a  number  of  other 
places  in  the  Bible  where  the  same  doctrine  is 
taught.  You  will  recall  that  striking  confession 
which   was   wrung   from    the    unwilling   lips   of 

43 


44  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

Balaam  when  he  was  called  to  curse  and  com- 
pelled to  bless :  ^*  God  is  not  a  man,  that  He 
should  he ;  neither  the  son  of  man,  that  He  should 
repent."  You  will  hear  again  the  majestic  voice 
of  Samuel,  affirming  that  "The  Strength  of  Israel 
will  not  lie."  Your  memory  will  bring  up  before 
you  those  massive  and  solid  words,  like  pillars  of 
granite,  in  which  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  shows  that  the  Christian's  hope  cannot 
be  shaken  because  it  rests  on  the  divine  promise 
and  oath,  **  two  immutable  things,  in  which  it  is 
impossible  for  God  to  lie."  And  as  you  recollect 
these  marked  and  remarkable  declarations  of  the 
veracity  of  God,  you  will  recognize  also  that  the 
truth  is  one  which  is  spread  underneath  the 
whole  Bible.  It  resembles  a  primitive  stratum 
of  rock  in  the  earth's  crust,  which  is  lifted  into 
sight,  here  and  there,  in  the  rugged  summits  of 
the  mountains,  but  which  exists  even  where  it 
does  not  appear,  and  is  the  foundation  of  all  the 
other  strata  piled  above  it,  and  of  the  deposits 
which  floods  and  glaciers  have  left  upon  them, 
and  of  the  dwellings  and  temples  which  men 
have  built  upon  the  surface.  The  bed  rock  is  the 
basis  of  all. 

The  bed  rock  of  the  Bible  is  the  truthfulness 
of  God.     The    revelation    of  His   character.  His 


A  DIVINE  IMPOSSIBILITY  45 

law,  His  will,  which  is  made  here  rests  ultimately 
upon  the  fact  of  His  veracity.  When  the  law- 
giver says,  "  This  do,  and  thy  soul  shall  live," 
when  the  prophet  says,  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord, 
and  thus  shall  it  come  to  pass,"  when  the  evan- 
gelist says,  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  thou  shalt  be  saved,"  the  one  thing  that  is 
taken  for  granted,  the  one  thought  that  lies  back 
of  the  law,  the  prophecy,  the  gospel,  is  that  God 
cannot  lie. 

Now  I  want  you  to  think  for  a  while  of  this 
divine  impossibility. 

L  In  the  first  place,  let  us  try  to  get  it  very 
clearly  and  solidly  into  our  minds  that  there 
is  a  divine  impossibility.  There  are  some  things 
that  God  cannot  do.  We  fall  very  often  into  a 
false  and  foolish  way  of  reasoning  about  the 
divine  attributes,  which  comes,  I  think,  from  the 
habit  of  treating  moral  truths  as  if  they  were 
mathematical,  and  trusting  a  finite  logic  to  deal 
with  infinite  quantities.  We  argue  that  because 
God  is  infinite  and  absolute  there  must  be  nothing 
that  He  does  not  know  and  nothing  that  He  can- 
not do.  From  the  mere  statement  of  a  proposi- 
tion, therefore,  it  would  follow  that  God  knows  it, 
and  from  the  mere  conception  of  an  action  it 
would  follow  that  He  can  do  it.     But  the  same 


46  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

logic  would  lead  us  inevitably  to  the  conclusion 
that  there  is  nothing  that  God  is  not.  If  He  is 
absolutely  without  bounds  or  limits  of  any  kind, 
then  He  is  light  and  darkness,  He  is  good  and 
evil.  He  is  the  sinner  and  the  saint.  Then  we 
must  believe  the  mystical  words  of  Emerson  in 
that  strange  little  piece  called  Brahma: — 

"  If  the  red  slayer  think  he  slays, 
Or  if  the  slain  think  he  is  slain, 
They  know  not  well  the  subtle  ways 
I  keep,  and  pass,  and  turn  again. 

"  They  reckon  ill  who  leave  me  out ; 
When  me  they  fly,  I  am  the  wings, 
1  am  the  doubter  and  the  doubt, 

And  I  the  hymn  the  Brahmin  sings." 

But  remember  that  if  God  is  infinite  in  this 
sense,  then  He  must  be  unknown  and  unknow- 
able. He  cannot  have  character,  for  character 
implies  distinction.  He  cannot  even  have  exist- 
ence in  any  real  sense,  for  existence  is  bounded 
by  non-existence.  Now  the  Bible  reveals  that 
God  is,  and  that  He  is  a  real  and  personal  being, 
and  that  He  has  a  moral  character,  fixed  and 
immutable  and  supreme.  If  it  seems  to  us  diffi- 
cult or  impossible  to  make  that  revelation  square 
with  our  metaphysics,  I  for  one  am  always  ready 
to  break  with  metaphysics,  if  need  be,  and  stand 


A  DIVINE  IMPOSSIBILITY  47 

by  the  Bible,  and  trust  God  as  He  makes  Him- 
self known  to  my  moral  nature  in  these  Scrip- 
tures and,  above  all,  in  the  person  and  life  of 
Jesus  Christ.  And  here  the  character  is  the  first 
thing,  the  great  thing,  the  dominant  thing.  We 
say  that  God  is  infinite,  but  before  we  say  that, 
we  say  that  He  is  holy  and  just  and  good  and 
true ;  and  the  infinitude  is  to  be  interpreted  in 
only  in  so  far  as  it  is  consistent  with  these  at- 
tributes. All  things  are  possible  with  God  that 
really  belong  to  God.  It  is  not  possible  that  He 
should  act  inconsistently  with  His  character  any 
more  than  it  is  possible  that  darkness  should  give 
light.  His  omnipotence  is  subject  to  Himself, 
and  what  He  is  reigns  over  what  He  does.  "  He 
is  called  omnipotent,"  says  St  Augustine,  "  in 
doing  what  He  wills,  not  in  suffering  what  He 
does  not  will.  For  if  that  happened  to  Him  He 
would  not  be  omnipotent.  Wherefore  He  cannot 
do  certain  things  because  He  is  omnipotent." 

Because  the  truth  of  God  is  perfect  and 
supreme  in  all  His  ways  therefore  He  cannot 
lie. 

n.  Now  consider  for  a  moment  what  this 
divine  impossibility  means. 

The  false  is  opposed  to  the  true,  and  that  oppo- 
sition is  always  one  and  the  same.     But  we  see  it 


48  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

in  different  lights  and  may  express  it  in  different 
terms.  The  false  is  fictitious  or  imaginary,  the 
true  is  real  and  actual ;  and  the  difference  between 
them  is  the  difference  between  an  illusion  and  a 
fact.  The  false  is  partial  and  incomplete,  the  true 
is  perfect  and  exact,  it  corresponds  to  its  idea ; 
the  false  circle  is  not  a  circle,  but  an  oval ;  the 
true  circle  has  every  point  of  its  circumference 
equidistant  from  the  center ;  and  the  difference 
between  them  is  the  difference  between  an  ap- 
proximation and  a  fulfillment.  The  false  is  decep- 
tive, it  appears  to  be  what  it  is  not ;  the  true  is 
genuine,  it  shows  itself  for  what  it  is ;  a  false 
friend  is  an  enemy  in  disguise,  a  true  friend  is  one 
who  feels  the  love  that  he  professes ;  and  the  dif- 
ference between  them  is  the  difference  between 
hypocrisy  and  honesty.  The  false  is  that  which 
changes,  and  fails,  and  disappoints  us,  the  true  is 
that  which  is  firm,  steadfast,  and  trustworthy  ;  a 
false  promise  is  made  to  be  broken,  a  true  promise 
is  made  to  be  kept;  and  the  difference  between 
them  is  the  difference  between  unfaithfulness  and 
fidelity.  Now  when  we  say  that  God  cannot  lie 
because  He  is  true,  we  mean  all  this  and  more. 
We  mean  that  He  is  real,  not  a  dream,  nor  a  name, 
but  the  living  God.  We  mean  that  He  is  perfect, 
that  everything  which  belongs  to  the  divine  ideal 


A  DIVINE  IMPOSSIBILITY  49 

actually  exists  in  Him,  so  that  He  alone  is  the  true 
God,  of  whom  the  false  divinities  are  but  broken 
and  distorted  shadows.  We  mean  that  He  is  sin- 
cere, that  He  is  what  He  appears  to  be,  so  that  in 
Him  the  fact  corresponds  to  the  revelation,  and 
the  thought  to  the  deed,  and  the  feeling  to  the 
action,  and  the  whole  character  to  its  expression. 
We  mean  that  He  is  faithful,  that  what  He  fore- 
tells He  will  surely  bring  to  pass,  that  what  He 
promises  He  will  certainly  perform. 

All  these  elements,  it  seems  to  me,  enter  into 
the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  truthfulness  of  God. 
And  if  they  seem  to  you  familiar  and  so  neces- 
sary that  it  is  almost  superfluous  to  mention 
them,  let  me  remind  you  that  this  is  chiefly  be- 
cause Christianity  has  impressed  them  so  deeply 
upon  our  moral  consciousness.  They  do  not  exist 
in  all  religions ;  they  do  not  even  exist  in  all  phil- 
osophies. When  I  spoke,  at  the  beginning,  of 
lying  as  a  common  and  natural  faculty  of  man,  it 
was  by  no  means  a  jocose  or  trivial  remark. 
Humanity  in  its  lower  forms,  unenlightened  by 
the  Divine  Spirit,  does  not  necessarily  recognize 
the  beauty  and  glory  of  truth.  Among  barbarous 
races  lying  is  not  only  a  general  habit,  it  is  fre- 
quently regarded  as  a  virtue ;  and  even  among 
civilized  and  cultivated  races  you  will  find  people 
4 


50  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

who  can  see  no  disgrace  in  it  except  that  of  being 
found  out.  Many  religions  have  been  invented 
and  believed — or  at  least  men  have  believed  that 
they  believed  them — in  which  falsehood  plays  a 
prominent  part  in  the  characters  and  actions  of 
the  gods.  Remember,  for  instance,  the  masquer- 
ades of  the  gods  in  Greek  and  Roman  mythology, 
and  especially  the  fabled  performances  of  Hermes, 
who  may  be  called  the  tutelary  divinity  of  liars. 
The  Bible,  on  the  contrary,  represents  the  first 
sin  as  coming  out  of  a  belief  that  God  would  not 
really  keep  His  word.  "  Ye  shall  not  surely  die," 
said  the  evil  spirit,  and  Adam  believed  him.  And 
as  the  first  sin  came  out  of  the  assumption  that 
God  might  lie,  so  the  second  consisted  in  the  fact 
that  man  did  lie.  "  The  woman  tempted  me  and 
I  did  eat."  That  was  the  first  falsehood  of  the 
great  harvest  that  was  afterward  to  spring  from 
the  idea  that  God  could  possibly  be  untrue. 

*'  It  seems  to  me,"  says  Carlyle,  "  you  lay  your 
finger  on  the  heart  of  all  the  world's  maladies 
when  you  call  it  a  skeptical  world ;  an  insincere 
world ;  a  godless  untruth  of  a  world !  It  is  out 
of  all  this,  as  I  consider,  that  the  whole  tribe  of 
social  pestilences,  French  Revolution,  Chartism, 
and  what  not,  have  derived  their  being,  and  their 
chief  necessity  to  be.     This  must  alter.     Till  this 


A  DIVINE  IMPOSSIBILITY  51 

alter  nothing  can  beneficially  alter.  My  one  hope 
of  the  world,  my  inexpugnable  consolation  in 
looking  at  the  miseries  of  the  world  is  that  this  is 
altering.  Here  and  there  one  does  now  find  a 
man  who  knows,  as  of  old,  that  this  world  is  a 
truth  and  no  plausibility  and  falsity ;  that  he  him- 
self is  alive,  not  dead  or  paralytic ;  and  that  the 
world  is  alive,  instinct  with  Godhead,  beautiful 
and  awful,  even  as  in  the  beginning  of  days." 

How,  then,  should  we  welcome  and  reverence 
a  religion  which  puts  truth  at  the  very  center  of 
the  universe  and  makes  it  of  the  essence  of  Deity  ! 
"An  honest  man's  the  noblest  work  of  God," 
says  the  poet.  I  have  long  wanted  to  say,  rather, 
"An  honest  God's  the  noblest  faith  of  man." 
It  is  the  only  foundation  for  secure  thinking, 
to  believe  that  the  universe  comes  from  such  a 
Being  that  it  must  contain  realities  correspond- 
ing to  appearances,  and  objects  answering  to  our 
perceptions.  Unless  that  were  true,  life  itself 
would  be  a  dream.  It  is  the  only  foundation  for 
right  conduct,  to  believe  that  the  moral  law  comes 
from  a  Being  who  really  loves  the  good  and  hates 
the  evil,  and  will  certainly  punish  the  one  and 
reward  the  other,  as  He  has  said.  It  is  the  only 
foundation  for  genuine  faith  and  sincere  worship,  to 
believe  that  we  have  a  revelation  from  the  true  God. 


52  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

III.  Let  us  ask,  then,  whether  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, in  which  Christianity  is  revealed  to  us, 
have  the  marks  of  coming  from  such  a  God  of 
truth.  I  do  not  mean,  now,  that  we  are  to  dis- 
cuss the  large  question  of  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity, for  that,  of  course,  would  take  a  lifetime, 
and,  after  all,  we  must  admit  frankly  that  the  final 
and  entire  truth  of  all  that  the  Christian  religion 
teaches  can  only  be  demonstrated  beyond  the 
possibility  of  doubt  to  each  soul  by  a  practical 
experience  which  will  carry  us  into  the  presence 
of  God.  But  what  I  mean  now  is  that  honesty, 
veracity,  sincerity,  as  we  find  them  existing  in  the 
world  around  us,  have  certain  general  character- 
istics by  which  we  recognize  them,  and  we  may 
expect  to  find  these  same  traits  in  a  revelation 
which  comes  from  a  truthful  God. 

What  are  they  ?  Well,  frankness  is  one,  and 
spontaneousness  is  another,  and  substantial  con- 
sistency is  another,  and  proved  trustworthiness  is 
another.  Consider  how  it  is  in  your  ordinary  life. 
When  you  find  that  a  man  is  in  the  habit  of  keep- 
ing his  word  you  are  inclined  to  believe  that  he 
will  be  true  to  his  promises  which  are  not  yet 
fulfilled.  If  he  professes  certain  principles  and 
acts  upon  them,  you  think  that  they  are  really 
his.     If  he  gives  you  an  account  of  certain  things 


A  DIVINE  IMPOSSIBILITY 


53 


which  is  manifestly  natural  and  unstudied  you 
are  inclined  to  receive  it  with  more  confidence 
than  if  it  had  an  artificial  air.  If  he  speaks  freely 
and  candidly,  without  mental  reserve  and  secret 
evasion,  you  are  favorably  disposed  toward  him 
and  take  him  for  a  man  of  truth. 

Now  it  seems  to  me  that  all  these  traits  are 
clearly  marked  in  the  Scriptures,  which  profess 
to  bring  us  the  revelation  of  the  character  and 
will  of  the  living  God.  There  is  not  time  to  dwell 
on  them  or  illustrate  them  fully,  but  they  are  all 
there. 

The  candor  of  the  Bible  is  manifest  and  amaz- 
ing. It  is  the  frankest  book  in  the  world.  I 
think  you  will  look  in  vain  for  any  other  sacred 
writings  which  narrate  with  such  absolute  sin- 
cerity the  errors  and  faults  of  the  people  who 
claimed  to  be  the  original  possessors  and  the 
principal  adherents  of  the  true  religion.  Nor  will 
you  find  any  other  book  in  which  the  conditions 
of  salvation,  the  requirements  of  divine  service, 
and  the  consequences  of  sin  are  so  fully  and 
frankly  stated. 

And  then,  it  seems  to  me  a  thing  to  inspire 
confidence  that  the  different  writers  who  give  us 
their  records  of  the  divine  revelation  speak  so  nat- 
urally, each  in  his  own  style  and  manner,  with  no 


54  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

effort  to  imitate  their  predecessors.  If  four  wit- 
nesses should  appear  before  a  judge  to  give  an 
account  of  a  certain  event  or  a  series  of  events, 
and  each  one  should  tell  exactly  the  same  story 
in  the  same  words,  the  judge  would  probably  con- 
clude, not  that  their  testimony  was  exceptionally 
valuable,  but  that  the  only  event  which  was  cer- 
tain beyond  a  doubt  was  that  they  had  agreed  to 
tell  the  same  story.  But  if  each  man  told  what 
he  had  seen,  as  he  had  seen  it,  then  the  evidence 
would  be  credible.  And  when  we  read  the  four 
gospels,  is  not  that  exactly  what  we  find  ?  Four 
men  telling  the  same  story,  each  in  his  own  way, 
and  behind  these  four  men  we  know  not  how 
many  of  those  who  had  seen  the  Lord  and  com- 
panied  with  Him  and  remembered  what  He  had 
said  and  done.  Some  saw  what  others  did  not 
see,  and  some  heard  what  others  did  not  hear. 
Their  differences  of  narrative  are  proofs  of  their 
sincerity.  False  witnesses  would  have  agreed 
beforehand.  The  discrepancies  of  the  Scriptures 
are  difficulties  in  one  sense,  but  in  another  and  a 
higher  sense  they  are  supports. 

Now,  of  course,  this  would  not  be  true  unless 
there  was  a  real  and  substantial  and  manifest  con- 
sistency of  the  Bible  with  itself.  But  that  is  just 
what  we  find  in  it.     All  the  difficulties  of  inter- 


A  DIVINE  IMPOSSIBILITY  55 

pretation,  all  the  points  of  apparent  disagreement 
between  different  writers  of  which  we  hear  so 
much  nowadays,  taken  altogether  and  piled  up  in 
a  heap  would  be  no  larger  than  an  ant-hill,  while 
the  great  bulk  of  truth,  self-consistent  and  self- 
coherent,  would  loom  up  above  it  like  the  Andes. 
The  revelation  of  God  in  the  Bible  is  one  from 
beginning  to  end.  It  does  not  change,  it  unfolds. 
It  does  not  swerve,  it  advances.  And  Jesus 
Christ  is  He  in  whom  the  law  and  the  prophets 
are  fulfilled,  and  from  whom  the  Gospels,  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  the  Epistles,  and  the  Revelation 
do  proceed. 

And  then,  while  the  Bible  contains  a  great 
many  things  which  cannot  be  verified  now,  as,  for 
example,  all  its  doctrines  in  regard  to  the  future 
state,  it  contains  also  things  which  can  be  verified. 
Prophecies  fulfilled — you  remember  the  great  man 
who  was  asked  to  name  the  strongest  evidence  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity,  and  who  answered  in 
two  words,  "  The  Jews !" — records  confirmed  by 
external  and  independent  testimony  from  ancient 
monuments  and  the  scrolls  of  forgotten  histories 
— there  are  many  ways  in  which  our  confidence 
in  the  veracity  of  the  Scriptures  is  strengthened 
and  supported.  But  I  think  the  best  way  of  all  is 
by  putting  its  moral  and  religious  precepts  to  the 


56  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

proof  in  this  present  life  and  seeing  whether  the 
results  which  are  foretold  do  not  begin  to  follow 
our  actions  here  and  now.  Let  a  man  take  that 
word  of  Paul,  "  He  that  soweth  to  his  flesh  shall 
of  the  flesh  reap  corruption;  but  he  that  soweth  to 
the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life  everlasting," 
and  try  it  by  this  test.  No  law  of  the  harvest 
could  be  more  certain  and  unvariable.  A  sensual 
life  brings  decay,  rottenness  to  the  bones  and 
deadness  to  the  soul.  A  spiritual  life  brings 
strength  and  beauty  and  fragrance  as  of  the 
springtide,  into  the  soul,  so  that  even  though  the 
outward  man  perish,  the  inward  man  is  renewed 
day  by  day.  Let  a  man  take  that  word  of  Christ, 
"  Come  unto  me  .  .  .  and  I  will  give  you  rest," 
and  prove  it  now.  Let  him  come  and  confide 
in  Jesus,  and  lean  upon  Him  as  the  Saviour,  and 
take  the  easy  yoke  of  His  service,  and  learn 
of  His  meek  and  lowly  heart,  and  see  whether 
peace  will  not  descend  upon  his  conflicts,  and 
refreshment  upon  his  weariness,  and  sweet  rest 
upon  his  soul.  It  is  thus  that  we  may  best  learn 
the  reality  and  truth  of  this  religion,  and  if  we  find 
that  it  is  true  in  regard  to  these  inmost  secrets  and 
mysteries  of  our  spiritual  life,  we  shall  be  con- 
vinced that  it  comes  from  the  God  of  truth  who 
cannot  lie. 


A  DIVINE  IMPOSSIBILITY  57 

IV.  And  now,  if  we  think  thus  of  the  divine 
revelation  which  comes  to  us  in  the  Bible — and  I 
suppose  most  of  us  do  think  thus — what  are  the 
things  in  regard  to  which  it  is  most  important  to 
remember  that  God  cannot  lie  ? 

First  of  all,  we  ought  to  remember  that  His 
warnings  against  sin  are  true.  They  are  not  mere 
threats  made  for  the  purpose  of  terrifying  man. 
They  are  sincere  and  honest  statements  of  what 
will  come,  and  must  come,  upon  those  who  die 
in  their  sins,  impenitent  and  unforgiven.  It  is 
strange,  and  yet  there  surely  is  a  reason  in  it, 
that  the  most  solemn  and  awful  of  these  declara- 
tions came  from  the  lips  of  Him  who  was  love 
incarnate.  Not  in  wrath,  not  with  loud  and 
angry  words,  swept  by  passion  beyond  the  bounds 
of  truth,  but  with  a  divine  gentleness  and  with 
that  serious  calm  which  is  the  very  air  of  sin- 
cerity, Jesus  foretells  the  future  of  those  who  do 
not  obtain  the  mercy  of  God  and  show  mercy  to 
their  fellow-men.  And  I  beg  you  to  hear  what 
He  says — I  beg  you  to  read  again,  in  the  secret 
of  your  own  chambers,  His  parables  of  judgment, 
and  remember  if  anything  in  the  world  is  true, 
these  words  are  true  and  will  surely  be  fulfilled, 
because  God  cannot  lie. 

But  there  is  another  thing  more  important  still 


58  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

for  us  to  remember,  and  that  is  that  all  God's 
promises  of  life  and  salvation  through  Jesus 
Christ  are  true.  "  Whosoever  believeth  in  Him 
shall  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  "  Him 
that  Cometh  to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out." 
**  Whosoever  will,  let  him  come." 

God  offers  forgiveness  and  grace  and  a  celes- 
tial hope  to  all  mankind  through  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  He  declares 
that  He  is  not  willing  that  any  should  perish, 
but  that  all  should  come  to  repentance.  He  has 
provided  a  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world,  and  He  stands  with  outstretched  arms, 
saying,  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden."  Now  I  tell  you,  as  a  servant 
of  God  and  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  offer  is 
sincere  and  genuine  and  honest,  as  men  count 
honesty  and  sincerity  and  truth.  There  is  no 
reserve  in  it.  There  is  no  secret  barrier  erected 
by  God's  decree  to  keep  you  from  accepting  it. 
Let  no  man  persuade  you  that  God  says  one 
thing  and  means  another.  Let  God  be  true, 
though  every  man  be  a  liar,  and  every  human 
system  be  false  and  illogical.  If  God  says  that 
He  is  willing  to  save  unto  the  uttermost,  it  is  true; 
if  He  offers  to  save  you.  He  will  do  it,  and  if  you 
need  grace  to  accept  the  offer  He  will  give  it  to 


A  DIVINE  IMPOSSIBILITY  59 

you  if  you  ask  Him.  If  He  promises  to  give 
pardon  and  life  to  every  one  that  believeth,  He 
will  do  it  for  you  if  you  take  Him  at  His  word. 

From  the  shadows  that  veil  the  cross  on  Cal- 
vary, from  the  ineffable  light  that  surrounds  the 
throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb,  I  hear  a  voice 
that  cries,  ''Come;  and  the  Spirit  and  the  bride 
say,  Come.  And  let  him  that  heareth  say,  Come. 
And  let  him  that  is  athirst  come.  And  whoso- 
ever will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life  freely." 
And  I  believe  that  is  the  voice  of  God  that  can- 
not lie. 


IV 
SALT 


IV 

SALTi 
"Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth." — St.  Matt.  v.  13. 

This  figure  of  speech  is  plain  and  pungent.  Salt 
is  savory,  purifying,  preservative.  It  is  one  of 
those  superfluities  which  the  great  French  wit 
defined  as  "  things  that  are  very  necessary."  From 
the  very  beginning  of  human  history  men  have 
set  a  high  value  upon  it  and  sought  for  it  in  caves 
and  by  the  seashore.  The  nation  that  had  a  good 
supply  of  it  was  counted  rich.  A  bag  of  salt, 
among  the  barbarous  tribes,  was  worth  more  than 
a  man.  The  Jews  prized  it  especially  because 
they  lived  in  a  warm  climate  where  food  was  dif- 
ficult to  keep,  and  because  their  religion  laid  par- 
ticular emphasis  on  cleanliness,  and  because  salt 
was  largely  used  in  their  sacrifices. 

Christ  chose  an  image  which  was  familiar  when 
He  said  to  His  disciples,  "  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the 
earth."  This  was  His  conception  of  their  mission, 
their  influence.    They  were  to  cleanse  and  sweeten 

1  Baccalaureate  sermon,  Harvard  University,  June,  1898. 

63 


64  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

the  world  in  which  they  Hved,  to  keep  it  from 
decay,  to  give  a  new  and  more  wholesome  flavor 
to  human  existence.  Their  character  was  not  to 
be  passive,  but  active.  The  sphere  of  its  action 
was  to  be  this  present  life.  There  is  no  use  in 
saving  salt  for  heaven.  It  will  not  be  needed 
there.  Its  mission  is  to  permeate,  season,  and 
purify  things  on  earth. 

Now,  from  one  point  of  view,  it  was  an  immense 
compliment  for  the  disciples  to  be  spoken  to  in 
this  way.  Their  Master  showed  great  confidence 
in  them.  He  set  a  high  value  upon  them.  The 
historian  Livy  could  find  nothing  better  to  express 
his  admiration  for  the  people  of  ancient  Greece 
than  this  very  phrase.  He  called  them  sal gejitiiim, 
"the  salt  of  the  nations." 

But  it  was  not  from  this  point  of  view  that 
Christ  was  speaking.  He  was  not  paying  com- 
pliments. He  was  giving  a  clear  and  powerful 
call  to  duty.  His  thought  was  not  that  His  dis- 
ciples should  congratulate  themselves  on  being 
better  than  other  men.  He  wished  them  to  ask 
themselves  whether  they  actually  had  in  them 
the  purpose  and  the  power  to  make  other  men 
f  better.  Did  they  intend  to  exercise  a  purifying, 
seasoning,  saving  influence  in  the  world  ?  Were 
they  going  to  make  their  presence  felt  on  earth 


SALT  65 

and  felt  for  good  ?  If  not,  they  would  be  failures 
and  frauds.  The  savor  would  be  out  of  them. 
They  would  be  like  lumps  of  rock  salt  which  has 
lain  too  long  in  a  damp  storehouse;  good  for 
nothing  but  to  be  thrown  away  and  trodden 
under  foot;  worth  less  than  common  rock  or 
common  clay,  because  it  would  not  even  make 
good  roads. 

Men  of  privilege  without  power  are  waste 
material.  Men  of  enlightenment  without  influ- 
ence are  the  poorest  kind  of  rubbish.  Men  of 
intellectual  and  moral  and  religious  culture,  who 
are  not  active  forces  for  good  in  society,  are  not  /  /'V  f 

worth  what  it  costs  to   produce  and  keep  them._. 
If  they   pass    for    Christians  they  are    guilty  of 
obtaining    respect    under   false    pretenses.     They 
were  meant  to  be  the  salt  of  the  earth.     And  the/ 
first  duty  of  salt  is  to  be  salty. 

This  is  the  subject  on  which  I  want  to  speak  to 
you  to-day.  The  saltiness  of  salt  is  the  symbol 
of  a  noble,  powerful,  truly  religious  life. 

You  college  students  are  men  of  privilege.  It 
costs  ten  times  as  much,  in  labor  and  care  and 
money,  to  bring  you  out  where  you  are  to-day  as 
it  costs  to  educate  the  average  man,  and  a  hun- 
dred times  as  much  as  it  costs  to  raise  a  boy 
without  any  education.  This  fact  brings  you  face 
5 


66  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

I  to  face  with   a  question :    Are   you  going  to  be 

'   worth  your  salt? 

You  have  had  mental  training  and  plenty  of 
instruction  in  various  branches  of  learning.  You 
ought  to  be  full  of  intelligence.  You  have  had 
moral  discipline,  and  the  influences  of  good  ex- 
ample have  been  steadily  brought  to  bear  upon 
you.  You  ought  to  be  full  of  principle.  You 
have  had  religious  advantages  and  abundant  in- 
ducements to  choose  the  better  part.  You  ought 
to  be  full  of  faith.  What  are  you  going  to  do 
with  your  intelligence,  your  principle,  your  faith  ? 
It  is  your  duty  to  make  active  use  of  them  for 
the  seasoning,  the  cleansing,  the  saving  of  the 
world.  Do_jiaL.be  sponges.  Be  the  salt  of  the 
earth. 

I.  Think,  first,  of  the  influence  for  good  which 
men  of  intelligence  may  exercise  in  the  world  if 
they  will  only  put  their  culture  to  the  right  use. 
Half  the  troubles  of  mankind  come  from  igno- 
rance— ignorance  which  is  systematically  organ- 
ized with  societies  for  its  support  and  newspapers 
for  its  dissemination — ignorance  which  consists 
less  in  not  knowing  things  than  in  willfully  ignor- 
ing the  things  that  are  already  known.  There 
are  certain  physical  diseases  which  would  go  out 
of  existence  in  ten  years  if  people  would   only 


SALT  (.-j 

remember  what  has  been  learned.  There  are 
certain  political  and  social  plagues  which  are 
propagated  only  in  the  atmosphere  of  shallow 
self-confidence  and  vulgar  thoughtlessness.  There 
is  a  yellow  fever  of  literature  specially  adapted 
and  prepared  for  the  spread  of  shameless  curi- 
osity, incorrect  information,  and  complacent  idi- 
ocy among  all  classes  of  the  population.  Persons 
who  fall  under  the  influence  of  this  pest  become 
so  triumphantly  ignorant  that  they  cannot  dis- 
tinguish between  news  and  knowledge.  They 
develop  a  morbid  thirst  for  printed  matter,  and" 
the  more  they  read  the  less  they  learn.  They  are^ 
fit  soil  for  the  bacteria  of  folly  and  fanaticism. 

Now   the   men    of  thought,  of  cultivation,  of 
reason  in  the  community  ought  to  be  an  antidote 
to  these  dangerous  influences.     Having  been  in- 
structed in  the  lessons  of  history  and  science  and 
philosophy  they  are   bound    to   contribute   their 
knowledge  to  the  service  of  society.     As  a  rule  r 
they  are   willing   enough  to  do  this  for  pay,  in 
the  professions  of  law  and  medicine  and  teaching  ^ 
and   divinity.     What    I    plead    for   is    the  wider, 
nobler,  unpaid  service  which    an   educated   man 
renders   to   society  simply  by  being   thoughtful  ' 
and  by  helping  other  men  to  think. 

The  college  men  of  a  country  ought  to  be  its 


68  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

most  conservative  men ;  that  is  to  say,  the  men 
who  do  most  to  conserve  it.  They  ought  to  be 
the  men  whom  demagogues  cannot  inflame  nor 
poHtical  bosses  pervert.  They  ought  to  bring 
wild  theories  to  the  test  of  reason,  and  withstand 
rash  experiments  with  obstinate  prudence.  When 
it  is  proposed,  for  example,  to  enrich  the  whole 
nation  by  debasing  its  currency,  they  should  be 
the  men  who  demand  time  to  think  whether  real 

I  wealth    can    be    created   by   artificial    legislation. 
fi'y^  And  if  they  succeed  in  winning  time  to  think,  the 

,  danger  will  pass — or  rather  it  will  be  transformed 
into  some  other  danger  requiring  a  new  applica- 
tion of  the  salt  of  intelligence.  For  the  ferment- 
ing activity  of  ignorance  is  incessant,  and  per- 
petual thoughtfulness  is  the  price  of  social 
safety. 
/     But  it  is  not  ignorance  alone  that  works  harm 

/in  the  body  of  society.  Passion  is  equally  dan- 
gerous. Take,  for  instance,  a  time  when  war  is 
imminent.  How  easily  and  how  wildly  the  pas- 
sions of  men  are  roused  by  the  mere  talk  of  fight- 
ing. How  ready  they  are  to  plunge  into  a  fierce 
conflict  for  an  unknown  motive,  for  a  base  motive, 
or  for  no  motive  at  all.  Educated  men  should  be 
the  steadiest  opponents  of  war  while  it  is  avoid- 
able.    But   when    it   becomes    inevitable,  save  at 


SALT  69 

cost  of  a  failure  in  duty  and  a  loss  of  honor, 
then  they  should  be  the  most  vigorous  advocates 
of  carrying  it  to  a  swift,  triumphant,  and  noble 
end.  No  man  ought  to  be  too  much  educated  to/ 
love  his  country  and,  if  need  be,  to  die  for  it/ 
The  culture  which  leaves  a  man  without  a  flag  is 
only  one  degree  less  miserable  than  that  whicli 
leaves  him  without  a  God.  To  be  empty  of  en- 
thusiasms and  overflowing  with  criticisms  is  not  a 
sign  of  cultivation,  but  of  enervation.  The  best 
learning  is  that  which  intensifies  a  man's  patriot- 
ism as  well  as  clarifies  it.  The  finest  education  is 
that  which  puts  a  man  in  closest  touch  with  his 
fellow-men.  The  true  intelligence  is  that  which 
acts,  not  as  cayenne  pepper  to  sting  the  world, 
but  as  salt  to  cleanse  and  conserve  it. 

11.  Think,  in  the  second  place,  of  the  duty 
which  men  of  moral  principle  owe  to  society  in 
regard  to  the  evils  which  corrupt  and  degrade  it. 
Of  the  existence  of  these  evils  we  need  to  be  re- 
minded again  and  again,  just  because  we  are  com- 
paratively clean  and  decent  and  upright  people. 
Men  who  live  an  orderly  life  are  in  great  danger 
of  doing  nothing  else.  We  wrap  our  virtue  up  in 
little  bags  of  respectability  and  keep  it  in  the 
storehouse  of  a  safe  reputation.  But  if  it  is 
genuine  virtue  it  is  worthy  of  a  better  use  than 


70  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

that.  It  is  fit,  nay  it  is  designed  and  demanded, 
to  be  used  as  salt,  for  the  purifying  of  human 
life. 

There  are  multitudes  of  our  fellow-men  whose 
existence  is  dark,  confused,  and  bitter.  Some  of 
them  are  groaning  under  the  burden  of  want ; 
partly  because  of  their  own  idleness  or  incapacity, 
no  doubt,  but  partly  also  because  of  the  rapacity, 
greed,  and  injustice  of  other  men.  Some  of  them 
are  tortured  in  bondage  to  vice ;  partly  by  their 
own  false  choice,  no  doubt,  but  partly  also  for 
want  of  guidance  and  good  counsel  and  human 
sympathy.  Every  great  city  contains  centers  of 
moral  decay  which  an  honest  man  cannot  think 
of  without  horror,  pity,  and  dread.  The  trouble 
is  that  many  honest  folk  dislike  these  emotions  so 
much  that  they  shut  their  eyes  and  walk  through 
the  world  with  their  heads  in  the  air,  breathing  a 
little  atmosphere  of  their  own,  and  congratulating 
themselves  that  the  world  goes  very  well  now. 
But  is  it  well  that  the  things  which  eat  the  heart 
out  of  manhood  and  womanhood  should  go  on  in 
all  our  great  towns  ? 

"  Is  it  well  that  while  we  range  with  science,  glorying  in  the 
time, 
City  children  soak  and  blacken  soul  and  sense  in  city  sUme  ? 


SALT  71 

"There,  among  the  glooming  alleys,  progress  halts  on  palsied 
feet; 
Crime  and  hunger  cast  our  maidens  by  the  thousand  on  the 
street. 

"  There    the    smouldering  fire   of  fever  creeps  across  the  rotted 
floor, 
And  the  crowded  couch  of  incest,  in  the  warrens  of  the  poor." 

Even  in  what  we  call  respectable  society,  forces 
of  corruption  are  at  work.  Are  there  no  unright- 
eous practices  in  business,  no  false  standards  in 
social  life,  no  licensed  frauds  and  falsehoods  in 
politics,  no  vile  and  vulgar  tendencies  in  art  and 
literature  and  journalism,  in  this  sunny  and  self- 
complacent  modern  world  of  which  we  are  a 
part  ?  All  these  things  are  signs  of  decay.  The 
question  for  us  as  men  of  salt  is :  What  are  we 
going  to  do  to  arrest  and  counteract  these  ten- 
dencies ?  It  is  not  enough  for  us  to  take  a  nega- 
tive position  in  regard  to  them.  If  our  influence 
is  to  be  real,  it  must  be  positive.  It  is  not  enough 
to  say  "  Touch  not  the  unclean  thing."  On  the  f  7- 
contrary,  we  must  touch  it,  as  salt  touches  decay 
to  check  and  overcome  it.  Good  men  are  not 
meant  to  be  simply  like  trees  planted  by  rivers 
of  water,  flourishing  in  their  own  pride  and  for 
their  own  sake.  They  ought  to  be  like  the 
eucalyptus  trees  which  have  been  set  out  in  the 


/ 


72  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

marshes  of  the  Campagna,  from  which  a  health- 
ful, tonic  influence  is  said  to  be  diffused  to  coun- 
tervail the  malaria.  They  ought  to  be  like  the  tree 
of  paradise,  "  whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of 
nations." 

Where  good  men  are  in  business,  lying  and 
cheating  and  gambling  should  be  more  difficult, 
truth  and  candor  and  fair  dealing  should  be  easier 
and  more  popular,  just  because  of  their  presence. 
Where  good  men  are  in  society,  grossness  of 
thought  and  speech  ought  to  stand  rebuked,  high 
ideals  and  courtliness  and  chivalrous  actions  and 
"  the  desire  of  fame  and  all  that  makes  a  man," 
ought  to  seem  at  once  more  desirable  and  more 
attainable  to  every  one  who  comes  into  contact 
with  them. 

There  have  been  men  of  this  quality  in  the 
world.  It  is  recorded  of  Bernardino  of  Siena,  that 
when  he  came  into  the  room,  his  gentleness  and 
purity  were  so  evident  that  all  that  was  base  and 
silly  in  the  talk  of  his  companions  was  abashed 
and  fell  into  silence.  Artists  like  Fra  Angelico 
have  made  their  pictures  like  prayers.  Warriors 
like  the  Chevalier  Bayard  and  Sir  Philip  Sidney 
and  Henry  Havelock  and  Chinese  Gordon  have 
dwelt  amid  camps  and  conflicts  as  Knights  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.     Philosophers  like  John  Locke  and 


SALT  73 

George  Berkeley,    men    of  science    like  Newton 
and  Herschel,  poets  like  Wordsworth  and  Tenny-     / 
son  and  Browning,   have   taught  virtue  by  their 
lives  as  well  as  wisdom  by  their  works.     Human-   / 
itarians  like  Howard  and  Wilberforce  and  Raikes  / 
and  Charles  Brace  have  given  themselves  to  nobW 
causes.     Every  man  who  will  has   it  in  his  power 
to  make  his  life  count  for  something  positive  in 
the   redemption    of    society.     And   this    is   what 
every  man  of  moral  principle  is  bound  to  do  if  he 
wants  to  belong  to  the  salt  of  the  earth. 

There  is  a  loftier  ambition  than  merely  to  stand  ^. 
high  in  the  world.  It  is  to  stoop  down  and  lift  I 
mankind  a  little  higher.  There  is  a  nobler  char- 
acter than  that  which  is  merely  incorruptible.  It^ 
is  the  character  which  acts  as  an  antidote  and 
preventive  of  corruption.  Fearlessly  to  speak  the 
words  which  bear  witness  to  righteousness  and 
truth  and  purity ;  patiently  to  do  the  deeds  which 
strengthen  virtue  and  kindle  hope  in  your  fellow- 
men  ;  generously  to  lend  a  hand  to  those  who  are 
trying  to  climb  upward ;  faithfully  to  give  your 
support  and  your  personal  help  to  the  efforts 
which  are  making  to  elevate  and  purify  the  social 
life  of  the  world — that  is  what  it  means  to  have 
salt  in  your  character.  And  that  is  the  way  to 
make  your  life  interesting  and  savory  and  power- 


74  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

ful.  The  men  that  have  been  happiest,  and  the 
men  that  are  best  remembered,  are  the  men  that 
have  done  good. 

What  the  world  needs  to-day  is  not  a  new  sys- 
tem of  ethics.  It  is  simply  a  larger  number  of 
people  who  will  make  a  steady  effort  to  live  up 
to  the  system  that  they  have  already.  There  is 
plenty  of  room  for  heroism  in  the  plainest  kind 
of  duty.  The  greatest  of  all  wars  has  been  going 
on  for  centuries.  It  is  the  ceaseless,  glorious 
conflict  against  the  evil  that  is  in  the  world. 
Every  warrior  who  will  enter  that  age-long  battle 
may  find  a  place  in  the  army,  and  win  his  spurs, 
and  achieve  honor,  and  obtain  favor  with  the  great 
Captain  of  the  Host,  if  he  will  but  do  his  best 
to  make  life  purer  and  finer  for  every  one  that 
lives. 

It  is  one  of  the  burning  questions  of  to-day 
whether  university  life  and  training  really  fit  men 
for  taking  their  share  in  this  supreme  conflict. 
There  is  no  abstract  answer;  but  every  college 
class  that  graduates  is  a  part  of  the  concrete 
answer.  Therein  lies  your  responsibility,  gentle- 
men. It  lies  with  you  to  illustrate  the  meanness 
of  an  education  which  produces  learned  shirks 
and  refined  skulkers ;  or  to  illuminate  the  perfec- 
tion of  unselfish  culture  with  the  light  of  devo- 


SALT  75 

tion  to  humanity.  It  lies  with  you  to  confess  that 
you  have  not  been  strong  enough  to  assimilate 
your  privileges ;  or  to  prove  that  you  are  able  to 
use  all  that  you  have  learned  for  the  end  for  which 
it  was  intended.  I  believe  the  difference  in  the 
results  depends  very  much  less  upon  the  educa- 
tional system  than  it  does  upon  the  personal  qual- 
ity of  the  teachers  and  the  men.  Richard  Porson 
was  a  university  man,  and  he  seemed  to  live 
chiefly  to  drink  port  and  read  Greek.  Thomas 
Guthrie  was  a  university  man,  and  he  proved  that 
he  meant  what  he  said  in  his  earnest  verse : — 


"  I  live  for  those  who  love  me, 
For  those  who  know  me  true, 
For  the  heaven  that  bends  above  me, 

And  the  good  that  I  can  do ; 
For  the  wrongs  that  need  resistance. 
For  the  cause  that  lacks  assistance, 
For  the  future  in  the  distance. 
And  the  good  that  I  can  do." 


III.  It  remains  only  to  speak  briefly,  in  the 
third  place,  of  the  part  which  religion  ought  to 
play  in  the  purifying,  preserving,  and  sweetening 
of  society.  Hitherto  I  have  spoken  to  you  simply 
as  men  of  intelligence  and  men  of  principle.  But 
the  loftiest  reach  of  reason  and  the  strongest 
inspiration  of  morality  is  religious  faith.     I  know 


76  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

there  are  some  thoughtful  men,  upright  men, 
unselfish  and  useful  men,  who  say  that  they  have 
no  such  faith.  But  they  are  very  few.  And  the 
reason  of  their  rarity  is  because  it  is  immensely 
difficult  to  be  unselfish  and  useful  and  thoughtful, 
without  a  conscious  faith  in  God,  and  in  the  divine 
law,  and  in  the  gospel  of  salvation,  and  in  the 
future  life.  I  trust  that  none  of  you  are  going  to 
try  that  desperate  experiment.  I  trust  that  all 
of  you  have  religion  to  guide  and  sustain  you  in 
life's  hard  and  perilous  adventure.  If  you  have,  I 
beg  you  to  make  sure  that  it  is  the  right  kind  of 
religion.  The  name  makes  little  difference.  The 
outward  form  makes  little  difference.  The  test  of 
its  reality  is  its  power  to  cleanse  life  and  make  it 
worth  living;  to  save  the  things  that  are  most 
precious  in  our  existence  from  corruption  and 
decay ;  to  lend  a  new  luster  to  our  ideals  and  to 
feed  our  hopes  with  inextinguishable  light;  to 
produce  characters  which  shall  fulfill  Christ's 
word  and  be  the  salt  of  the  earth. 

Religion  is  something  which  a  man  cannot  in- 
vent for  himself,  j^for  keep  to  himself.  If  it  does 
not  show  in  his  conduct  it  does  not  exist  in  his 
heart.  If  he  has  just  barely  enough  of  it  to  save 
himself  alone,  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  has  even 
enough  for  that.     Religion  ought  to    bring    out 


SALT  Tj 

and  intensify  the  flavor  of  all  that  is  best  in  man- 
hood, and  make  it  fit,  to  use  Wordsworth's  noble 
phrase — 

"  For  human  nature's  daily  food." 

Good  citizens,  honest  workmen,  cheerful  com- 
rades, true  friends,  gentle  men — that  is  what  the 
product  of  religion  should  be.  And  the  power 
that  produces  such  men  is  the  great  antiseptic  of 
society,  to  preserve  it  from  decay. 

Decay  begins  in  discord.  It  is  the  loss  of  bal- 
ance in  an  organism.  One  part  of  the  system  gets 
too  much  nourishment,  another  part  too  little. 
Morbid  processes  are  established.  Tissues  break 
down.  In  their  debris  all  sorts  of  malignant 
growths  take  root.     Ruin  follows. 

Now  this  is  precisely  the  danger  to  which  the 
social  organism  is  exposed.  From  this  danger 
religion  is  meant  to  preserve  us.  Certainly  there 
can  be  no  true  Christianity  which  does  not  aim  at 
this  result.  It  should  be  a  balancing,  compen- 
sating, regulating  power.  It  should  keep  the 
relations  between  man  and  man,  between  class 
and  class,  normal  and  healthful  and  mutually 
beneficent.  It  should  humble  the  pride  of  the 
rich,  and  moderate  the  envy  of  the  poor.  It 
should  soften  and  ameliorate  the  unavoidable 
inequalities  of  life,  and  transform  them  from  causes 


T 


78  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

of  jealous  hatred  into  opportunities  of  loving  and 
generous  service.  If  it  fails  to  do  this  it  is  salt 
without  savor,  and  when  a  social  revolution 
comes,  as  the  consequence  of  social  corruption, 
men  will  cast  out  the  unsalted  religion  and  tread 
it  under  foot. 

Was  not  this  what  happened  in  the  French 
Revolution  ?  What  did  men  care  for  the  religion 
that  had  failed  to  curb  sensualit}'  and  pride  and 
cruelt}"  under  the  oppression  of  the  old  regime, 
the  religion  that  had  forgotten  to  deal  bread  to 
the  hungr}-,  to  comfort  the  afflicted,  to  break 
ever}'  yoke,  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free  ?  What 
did  they  care  for  the  religion  that  had  done  little 
or  nothing  to  make  men  understand  and  love  and 
help  one  another  ?  Nothing.  It  was  the  first 
thing  that  they  threw  away  in  the  madness  of 
their  revolt  and  trampled  in  the  mire  of  their 
contempt. 

But  was  the  world  much  better  off  without  that 
false  kind  of  relis^ion  than  with  it?  Did  the 
revolution  really  accomplish  anything  for  the 
purification  and  preser\-ation  of  societ}*  ?  Xo,  it 
only  turned  things  upside  down,  and  brought  the 
elements  that  had  been  at  the  bottom  to  the  top. 
It  did  not  really  change  the  elements,  or  sweeten 
life,  or  arrest  the  processes  of  decay.     The  only 


SALT  79 

thing  that  can  do  this  is  the  true  kind  of  religion, 
which  brings  men  closer  to  one  another  by  bring- 
ing them  all  nearer  to  God. 

Some  people  say  that  another  revolution  is 
coming  in  our  own  age  and  our  own  country.  It 
is  possible.  There  are  signs  of  it.  There  has 
been  a  tremendous  increase  of  luxury  among  the 
rich  in  the  present  generation.  There  has  been  a 
great  increase  of  suffering  among  the  poor  in  cer- 
tain sections  of  our  country.  It  was  a  startling 
fact  that  nearly  six  millions  of  people  in  1896 
cast  a  vote  of  practical  discontent  with  the  present 
social  and  commercial  order.  It  may  be  that  we 
are  on  the  eve  of  a  great  overturning.  I  do  not 
know.  I  am  not  a  prophet  nor  the  son  of  a 
prophet.  But  I  know  that  there  is  one  thing  that 
can  make  a  revolution  needless,  one  thing  that  is 
infinitely  better  than  any  revolution  ;  and  that  is  a 
real  revival  of  religion — the  religion  that  has 
already  founded  the  hospital  and  the  asylum  and 
the  free  school,  the  religion  that  has  broken  the 
fetters  of  the  slave  and  lifted  womanhood  out  of 
bondage  and  degradation,  and  put  the  arm  of  its 
protection  around  the  helplessness  and  innocence 
of  childhood,  the  religion  that  proves  its  faith  by 
its  works,  and  links  the  preaching  of  the  father- 
hood of  God  to  the  practice  of  the  brotherhood 


8o  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

of  man.     That  religion  is  true  Christianity,  with 
plenty  of  salt  in  it  which  has  not  lost  its  savor. 

I  believe  that  we  are  even  now  in  the  begin- 
ning of  a  renaissance  of  such  religion.  I 
believe  that  there  is  a  rising  tide  of  desire  to  find 
the  true  meaning  of  Christ's  teaching,  to  feel  the 
true  power  of  Christ's  life,  to  interpret  the  true 
significance  of  Christ's  sacrifice  for  the  redemption 
of  mankind.  I  believe  that  never  before  were 
there  so  many  young  men  of  culture,  of  intelli- 
gence, of  character,  passionately  in  earnest  to 
find  the  way  of  making  their  religion  speak,  not 
in  word  only,  but  in  power.  I  call  you  to-day, 
my  brethren,  to  take  your  part,  not  with  the  idle, 
the  frivolous,  the  faithless,  the  selfish,  the  gilded 
youth,  but  with  the  earnest,  the  manly,  the  devout, 
\  the  devoted,  the  golden  youth.  I  summon  you 
to  do  your  share  in  the  renaissance  of  religion  for 
your  own  sake,  for  your  fellow-men's  sake,  for 
your  country's  sake.  On  this  fair  Sunday,  when 
all  around  us  tells  of  bright  hope  and  glorious 
promise,  let  the  vision  of  our  country,  with  her 
perils,  with  her  opportunities,  with  her  tempta- 
tions, with  her  splendid  powers,  with  her  threat- 
ening sins,  rise  before  our  souls.  What  needs 
she  more,  in  this  hour,  than  the  cleansing,  saving, 
conserving   influence    of    right    religion?     What 


SALT  8i 

better  service  could  we  render  her  than  to  set  our 
Hves  to  the  tune  of  these  words  of  Christ,  and  be 
indeed  the  salt  of  our  country,  and,  through  her 
growing  power,  of  the  whole  earth  ?  Ah,  bright 
will  be  the  day,  and  full  of  glory,  when  the  bells 
of  every  church,  of  every  schoolhouse,  of  every 
college,  of  every  university,  ring  with  the  music 
of  this  message,  and  find  their  echo  in  the  hearts 
of  the  youth  of  America.  That  will  be  the  chime 
of  a  new  age. 

"  Ring  in  the  valiant  man  and  free, 
The  larger  heart,  the  kindlier  hand ; 
Ring  out  the  darkness  of  the  land, 
Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be." 
6 


V 

A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN   MISSIONS 


V 


A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

"  Go  ye  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost: 
teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you  :  and,  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world.     Amen." — St.  Matt,  xxviii.  19,  20. 

Here  is  the  first  command  of  the  risen  Christ 
to  His  disciples.  It  is  the  divine  charter  of  the 
Christian  Church.  Three  facts  are  written  upon 
the  very  face  of  this  charter : — 

I.  The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  was  founded  as 
a  missionary  enterprise.  It  was  not  intended  to 
stand  still,  but  to  "  go."  It  was  not  intended  to 
be  self-contained,  but  to  "  make  disciples "  and 
"  baptize  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son) 
and  the  Holy  Ghost."  It  was  not  intended  to  be 
silent,  but  to  "  teach  "  the  things  that  Christ  com- 
manded. It  is  of  the  very  essence  of  Christianity 
that  it  is  an  advancing,  conquering  religion.  The 
Church  is  the  body  in  which  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
is  to  live  and  work.     The  Spirit  of  Christ  is  mis- 

85 


86  THE  OPEN   DOOR 

sions.     When   that   Spirit   wanes  the   Church    is 
sick ;   when  that  Spirit  dies  the  Church  expires. 

2.  The  missionary  enterprise  of  the  Church  has 
no  national  or  geographical  Hmits.  It  has  a 
method  which  may  be  called  the  method  of 
radiation.  Beginning  at  Jerusalem,  it  is  to  spread 
outward  through  Judaea  and  Samaria,  unto  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  The  circles  are 
concentric,  but  not  coterminous.  There  is  no  fixed 
distance  at  which  they  are  to  stop.  There  is  no 
line  where  the  gospel  must  halt  and  turn  back 
upon  itself,  and  say,  "  Thus  far  can  I  go,  and  no 
farther."  Above  all  there  is  no  wall  or  barrier 
to  divide  home  missions  from  foreign  missions. 
To  separate  these  two  things  from  each  other  is 
to  divide  them  both  from  Christ.  For  He  never 
saw  or  acknowledged  any  such  division.  He 
called  disciples  in  order  that  they  might  call  other 
disciples.  He  chose  nations  in  order  that  they 
might  be  messengers  to  other  nations.  He  gave 
Christianity  a  home  in  the  world  in  order  that 
it  might  make  the  whole  world  its  home.  The 
sole  boundary  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  is  the  ring 
of  the  round  earth. 

3.  There  is  no  limit  of  time  in  the  commission 
which  Christ  gives  to  His  Church.  He  does  not 
tell  His  disciples  that  they  are  to  preach  and  teach 


A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  87 

for  one  century,  for  five  centuries,  for  twenty  cen- 
turies, and  then  pause,  to  wait  for  the  restoration 
of  the  kingdom.  On  the  contrary,  He  says  that 
it  is  not  for  them  "  to  know  the  times  or  the 
seasons,  which  the  Father  hath  put  in  His  own 
power."  The  one  thing  for  them  to  do  is  to  go, 
and  keep  on  going;  to  preach,  and  keep  on 
preaching;  for  if  they  do  this  He  will  be  with 
them  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.  The  com- 
mission is  universal  and  perpetual.  The  ''  limit 
of  space  "  is  the  globe  itself  The  "  limit  of  time  " 
is  all  the  time  there  is.  Until  the  end  of  the 
world  is  reached,  the  commission  runs :  "  Go  ye 
therefore  and  disciple  all   nations." 

Now  I  submit  to  you  that  this  is  a  fair,  honest, 
and  reasonable  interpretation  of  the  charter  which 
Jesus  Christ  gave  to  His  Church.  These  three 
facts  are  clear :  He  intended  it  to  be  a  missionary 
enterprise,  for  the  whole  world,  and  to  the  end  of 
time.  But  in  the  face  of  these  facts  there  are 
some  people  who  say,  "  We  believe  in  Christianity, 
but  we  do  not  believe  in  foreign  missions  ";  and 
there  are  a  good  many  more  people  who  say, 
"  We  are  Christians,  but  we  have  no  particular 
interest  in  foreign  missions  ";  and  there  is  a  vast 
number  of  people  who  say  nothing  at  all  about  it, 
but   give    conclusive  evidence  of  a  lack  of  faith 


88  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

by  a  large  and  unmistakable  absence  of  works. 
There  may  be  some  of  these  people  in  this  con- 
gregation; and  if  so  I  am  heartily  glad  of  it,  and 
can  assure  them  that  they  are  most  welcome. 
Everybody  is  welcome  here,  whatever  his  opinions 
be  on  any  subject;  and  I  should  be  especially 
glad  this  morning  to  have  an  opportunity  of 
speaking  to  some  who  may  be  indifferent  or  even 
in  opposition,  provided  they  are  willing  to  listen, 
with  candid  minds,  to  a  plain  and  straightforward 
statement  of  the  facts.  It  may  be  possible  to 
remove  their  difficulties  and  induce  them  to  re- 
consider their  position.  It  may  be  possible  to 
say  something  to  confirm  and  increase  the  interest 
of  those  who  are  already  favorably  inclined 
toward  the  subject.  It  may  be  possible  to  fortify 
the  faith  of  those  who  believe  in  the  cause,  but  are 
sometimes  disturbed  by  the  arguments  which  are 
urged  against  it.  At  all  events,  I  hold  a  Brief  for 
Foreign  Missions  to-day,  and  I  propose  to  plead 
that  cause  in  the  presence  of  this  assembly. 

You  will  observe  at  the  outset  that  the  cause 
occupies  the  position,  not  of  the  prosecution,  but 
of  the  defense.  The  command  of  Christ  and  the 
original  charter  of  the  Church  are  in  its  favor. 
As  long  as  these  stand  unassailed  and  unre- 
pealed the  cause  is  justified.    The  burden  of  proof 


A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  89 

rests  on  the  other  side.  All  that  we  have  to  do 
is  to  answer  the  objections,  and  if  that  can  be 
done  the  case  is  ours.  And  this  is  what  I  pro- 
pose to  do  this  morning — to  meet  fairly  the  argu- 
ments against  foreign  missions,  and  show  you, 
not  merely  that  they  are  too  weak  to  stand  against 
the  command  of  Christ,  but  that  every  one  of 
them  really  enforces  and  intensifies  that  command, 
and  is  in  fact  an  argument  for  foreign  missions. 
I  want  to  turn  the  enemies'  guns  and  *^  carry  the 
war  into  Africa." 

Let  us  take  the  common  objections  in  order. 

I.  "There  are  so  many  heathen  at  home  that 
it  is  foolish  to  waste  the  strength  of  the  Church 
in  trying  to  preach  to  the  heathen  abroad." 

I  admit  the  premise  at  once,  but  I  deny  the 
conclusion ;  for,  in  order  to  establish  it,  you  must 
show  that  the  way  to  convert  the  heathen  at  home 
is  to  neglect  the  heathen  abroad.  But  the  facts 
are  all  the  other  way ;  and  if  the  history  of  the 
Church  proves  anything,  it  proves  that  she  has 
always  done  her  best  for  those  who  are  nearest  to 
her,  when  she  has  been  doing  most  for  those  who 
are  far  away  from  her. 

There  are  heathen  at  home ;  and  we  ought 
never  to  forget  or  neglect  them.  But  how  many 
are  they  ?     Do  you  suppose  there  are  ten  million 


90 


THE  OPEN  DOOR 


people  in  this  country  who  do  not  know  about 
Christianity  ?  Are  there  forty  milHon  people 
whom  you  would  venture  to  call  heathen  ?  There 
cannot  be  more  than  that,  for  all  the  rest  are  in 
connection  with  Christian  Churches.  But  in  the 
world  outside  there  are  a  thousand  million  heathen. 
In  China  three  hundred  million :  in  India  two 
hundred  and  fifty  million :  a  vast  black  wilderness 
of  heathendom,  in  which  the  lost  and  wretched 
myriads  of  human  beings  are  wandering  without 
a  ray  of  light.  Every  one  of  them  needs  Christ 
just  as  much  as  you  and  I  need  Him.  What  an 
immense,  what  an  incalculable  claim  has  this  un- 
happy and  benighted  world  on  us  to  whom  God 
has  given  the  gospel ! 

Moreover,  the  vast  majority  of  these  fellow- 
creatures  are  heathen  by  necessity ;  they  have 
never  heard  the  gospel.  But  in  our  own  land  the 
greater  number  are  heathen  by  choice ;  they  have 
heard  the  religion  of  Christ,  but  do  not  accept  it. 
This  is  no  reason  why  we  shall  give  up  trying  to 
win  them ;  but  I  ask  you  whether  one  of  the 
very  reasons  which  make  it  hard  to  win  them  is 
not  the  fact  that  the  Christian  Church  seems  so 
forgetful,  so  careless  of  the  fate  of  the  great  world  ? 
Nothing  could  do  more  to  make  Christianity 
potent   at   home,  than    to    see    it   really  anxious 


A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  91 

and  eager  and  devoted  to  help  and  bless  and  save 
all  men  everywhere.  The  very  effort  to  fulfill 
Christ's  command  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature  would  be  the  noblest  proof  of  the  reality 
and  beauty  of  His  religion.  Darkness  is  the  same 
wherever  it  exists  ;  it  is  all  one  kingdom  ;  and  the 
darkness  that  still  lingers  in  our  own  land  will 
never  be  conquered  and  expelled  until  the  Church 
of  Christ  really  girds  herself  and  goes  forth  to 
vanquish  the  mighty  strongholds  of  night  and 
death  throughout  the  world.  Then  her  light  will 
shine,  and  the  gleam  that  is  strong  enough  to 
pierce  the  shadows  in  the  distance  will  irradiate 
the  gloom  that  gathers  at  her  feet. 

More  light  is  what  the  world  wants.  And  do 
you  think  that  it  will  make  less  light  to  kindle  a 
greater  fire  ?  Do  you  suppose  that  one  more 
Christian  in  China  will  make  one  less  Christian 
in  America  ?  Do  you  imagine  that  one  less 
effort  to  preach  the  gospel  in  Africa  will  mean 
one  more  effort  to  preach  the  gospel  in  America  ? 
Do  you  suppose  that  one  dollar  that  is  given  for 
foreign  missions  will  be  taken  from  home  mis- 
sions ?  I  tell  you,  no !  It  will  be  taken  from 
self-indulgence,  from  avarice,  from  worldly  luxury. 
Peter  is  not  robbed  when  Paul  is  supported. 
Demas,   the    worldling,    Simon    Magus,    the    as- 


92  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

trologer,  and  Demetrius,  the  idol-maker,  are  the 
only  ones  that  suffer.  Peter  and  Paul  grow 
strong  together,  and  the  farther  the  one  goes 
abroad,  the  better  the  other  works  at  home.  In 
1 8 12  a  man  in  the  Senate  of  Massachusetts  ob- 
jected to  the  incorporation  of  the  American 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions  on  the  ground  that 
"  the  country  had  no  religion  to  spare."  If  that 
objection  had  prevailed  I  believe  by  this  time  the 
country  would  have  had  no  religion  to  keep. 

Do  you  really  think  that  the  effort  to  send  the 
gospel  to  the  heathen  has  hindered  the  evangel- 
izing of  our  own  land  in  one  solitary  instance  ? 
Has  not  the  Church  at  home  become  more  earnest, 
more  devoted,  more  generous,  more  aggressive, 
more  useful,  just  because,  and  in  as  far  as,  she 
has  begun  to  try  to  do  something  for  the  whole 
race  of  man  ?  Would  you  not  care  more,  and  do 
more,  for  the  success  of  the  gospel  here,  if  you 
cared  more  and  did  more  for  its  success  every- 
where ? 

The  fact  that  there  are  heathen  at  home  is, 
then,  an  argument  why  we  should  do  our  best  to 
preach  Christ  to  the  heathen  everywhere.  That 
will  be  consistent.  And  a  consistent  Christianity 
is  the  only  kind  that  can  convince  men  and  con- 
vert them. 


A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  93 

2.  "  Foreign  missions  are  not  wisely  con- 
ducted ;  the  missionaries  are  not  well  chosen ; 
they  live  too  luxuriously;  the  work  is  extrava- 
gantly done ;  it  costs  five  dollars  to  send  ten  dol- 
lars to  the  heathen." 

To  this  objection,  which  probably  includes 
more  misstatements  than  any  other  argument  of 
equal  length  which  the  mind  of  man  has  ever 
devised,  I  interpose  a  general  and  particular 
denial,  and  appeal  to  fact  against  prejudice.  It 
would  take  too  long  to  make  a  complete  exhibi- 
tion of  the  errors  which  are  here  confidently 
asserted,  and  which  have  been  so  often  refuted 
that  the  only  wonder  is  that  any  one  should  be 
foolish  enough  to  repeat  them,  or  credulous 
enough  to  believe  them. 

It  does  not  cost  five  dollars  to  send  ten  dollars 
to  the  heathen,  nor  two  dollars,  nor  one  dollar. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  costs  less  than  sixty  cents. 
The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  last 
year  collected  and  sent  into  the  foreign  field  one 
million  and  twenty-nine  thousand  dollars.  The 
expenses  of  administration  were  sixty-eight  thou- 
sand dollars.  That  is  a  little  less  than  six  per 
cent.  Do  you  know  of  any  business  that  is  more 
cheaply  conducted?  Certainly  there  is  none  in 
New  York. 


94  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

The  missionaries  do  not  live  luxuriously.  They 
live  laboriously  and  simply  and  honestly.  Our 
Church  supports  two  thousand  six  hundred  of 
them,  American  and  native,  at  an  average  expense 
of  less  than  four  hundred  dollars  a  year  apiece 
for  them  and  all  their  work.  You  cannot  have 
much  luxury  on  four  hundred  dollars  a  year. 
These  missionaries  spend  less  in  a  year  for  their 
whole  living  than  some  of  you  spend  for  your 
opera  and  theatre  tickets. 

And  where  do  the  reports  of  their  luxury  come 
from  ?  From  travelers  whom  the  missionaries 
have  fed  at  their  tables  and  sheltered  in  their 
houses,  and  who  come  away  to  reproach  their 
hosts  with  extravagance.  People  who  are  willing 
to  offend  against  the  first  law  of  hospitality  are 
not  likely  to  have  a  very  strict  regard  for  the  law 
of  truth.  You  should  take  their  reports  with  a 
grain  of  salt.  Besides,  suppose  some  of  the  mis- 
sionaries do  live  well.  Are  they  not  entitled  to 
do  so  ?  When  you  send  an  agent  into  a  foreign 
country  you  do  not  want  him  to  appear  as  a 
beggar.  When  you  have  heavy  work  for  your 
horse  you  do  not  begin  by  cutting  down  his  oats. 
I  know  of  a  Presbyterian  missionary  in  China 
who  walked  twelve  hundred  miles  in  seven  months 
and  preached  three  times  a  day ;  and  his  travel- 


A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  95 

ing  expenses  were  less  than  one  hundred  dollars ; 
and  if  you  think  that  is  luxury,  I  wish  you  had 
more  of  it. 

As  to  the  quality  of  the  men,  I  should  be  per- 
fectly willing  to  match  them  against  any  other 
set  of  men  engaged  in  the  service  of  any  other 
enterprise  in  the  world.  Look  at  Africa.  Let 
Stanley,  and  his  front  column,  and  his  rear  column, 
defile  before  you.  These  are  the  ambassadors 
of  commerce  !  And  then  let  the  missionaries  ap- 
pear, Livingstone,  and  Hannington,  and  Mackay, 
and  Bushnell,  and  Lindley,  and  Mackenzie,  and 
all  that  noble  company.  These  are  the  ambassa- 
dors of  the  cross !  Which  think  you  is  the  finer 
army  in  the  sight  of  the  world  ? 

I  will  tell  you  what  the  British  East  India 
Company  said  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century :  "  The  sending  of  Christian  missionaries 
into  our  eastern  possessions  is  the  maddest,  most 
expensive,  most  unwarranted  project  that  was 
ever  proposed  by  a  lunatic  enthusiast."  I  will 
tell  you  what  the  English  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  Bengal  said  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury: "In  my  judgment  Christian  missionaries 
have  done  more  lasting  good  to  the  people  of 
India  than  all  other  agencies  combined."  The 
agency  which  has  justified  its  existence,  done  its 


96  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

work,  and  won  the  approval  of  its  bitterest  oppo- 
nents, after  that  fashion,  cannot  possibly  be  fool- 
ish, feeble,  extravagant  or  dishonest.  You  cannot 
find  any  other  human  enterprise  of  modern  times 
which  has  been  as  wisely,  as  prudently,  as  eco- 
nomically, as  honorably  conducted  as  this  work 
of  Christian  missions. 

3.  "  The  great  thing  to  be  desired  is  the  unity 
of  the  Church ;  but  the  sending  out  of  mission- 
aries by  the  different  denominations  perpetuates 
the  divisions  among  Christians ;  therefore  the 
work  of  foreign  missions  should  be  stopped." 

On  the  contrary,  the  unity  of  the  Church  is 
one  of  the  very  strongest  arguments  for  foreign 
missions;  for  the  only  line  along  which  that  unity 
can  be  reached  is  the  line  of  cooperation  in  the 
work  of  Christ ;  and  the  best  field  in  the  world 
for  cooperation  is  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  to 
the  heathen.  There,  if  anywhere,  standing  face 
to  face  with  the  black  mass  of  paganism  and 
idolatry,  the  disciples  of  Jesus  can  feel  that  they 
are  one.  "  In  a  country  where  people  pray  to 
cows,"  said  Lord  Macaulay,  "  the  differences  that 
divide  Christians  seem  of  small  account." 

The  missionaries  do  not  go  out  to  preach 
Methodism  or  Congregationalism  or  Presbyte- 
rianism ;  even  if  they  wanted  to  do  it,  they  would 


A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  97 

find  it  impossible ;  they  have  to  preach  Christ,  in 
the  plainest  words,  in  the  simplest  way ;  for  that 
is  the  only  preaching  that  will  do  any  good.  All 
that  remains  of  denominationalism  is  an  oreani- 
zation  behind  them  to  supply  the  money  and  the 
men  for  the  common  work.  Regiments  from  dif- 
ferent states  fight  for  the  same  flag.  At  home 
there  may  be  little  rivalries ;  in  the  field  the  only 
rivalry  is  to  do  the  best  service.  You  are  bound 
to  support  your  organization  well,  not  only  for  its 
own  credit,  but  because  it  is  the  link  which  binds 
you  to  the  common  cause.  There  is  no  way  in 
which  you  can  do  more  to  advance  the  real  and 
living  unity  of  the  Christian  Church  than  by 
giving,  through  the  nearest  channel,  to  the  work 
of  foreign  missions.  For  it  is  in  that  work  that 
Christ  is  most  simply  preached,  and  from  that 
work  to-day  the  brightest  beams  of  dawn  are 
rising  to  presage  the  reunion  of  Christendom.  I 
know  of  nothing  more  beautiful  in  the  history 
of  the  modern  Christian  Church  than  the  union 
of  the  converts  of  different  missions  into  one 
"  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,"  with  a  creed  so 
short  that  it  can  be  printed  on  a  single  page, 
and  so  simple  that  I  long  for  the  day  when  our 
own  Presbyterian  Church  shall  have  one  like  it. 
The  hope  of  the  unity  of  the  Church  in  the 
7 


98  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

simplicity  of  the  faith  is  an  argument,  not  against, 
but  for,  foreign  missions. 

4.  "  The  work  of  foreign  missions  does  not 
pay;  it  is  not  a  success." 

If  this  means  that  the  work  of  missions  is  not 
yet  completely  successful,  the  assertion  must  be 
frankly  admitted.  But  this  does  not  prove  that 
the  work  should  be  abandoned ;  on  the  contrary, 
it  proves  that  it  should  be  continued  and  enlarged. 

The  existence  of  disease  is  not  an  argument 
against  the  practice  of  medicine ;  it  is  an  argu- 
ment in  its  favor.  The  fact  that  heathenism  is  not 
yet  conquered  and  extirpated  is  the  very  reason 
why  we  should  keep  on  with  the  work  of  mis- 
sions, and  put  into  it  an  infinitely  larger  force  of 
men,  of  money,  of  prayer,  of  effort,  than  we  have 
ever  done  yet. 

But  if  this  objection  means  that  the  results  of 
foreign  missions  are  not  enough  to  encourage  us 
to  go  on  with  them,  then  I  deny  the  assertion, 
and  appeal  again  to  the  facts.  There  is  no  enter- 
prise among  men  which  can  show  a  better  record, 
in  comparison  with  the  means  used  and  the  diffi- 
culties met,  than  the  missionary  enterprise. 

What  do  you  call  success  ?  Is  it  a  success  to 
have  opened  new  continents  to  commerce  and 
brought  civilization  to  new  nations  ?     Then  mis- 


A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  99 

sions  have  succeeded,  for  they  have  led  the  way 
into  Africa  and  Australia  and  Asia;  they  have 
changed  the  South  Sea  Islands  from  the  terror  of 
navigators  into  peaceful  centres  of  trade ;  they 
have  won  the  confidence  of  strange  and  hostile 
races,  and  paved  the  way  for  the  interchange  of 
commodities  and  the  entrance  of  civilizing  influ- 
ences. I  do  not  say  that  commerce  has  always 
made  the  best  use  of  these  opportunities.  For 
too  often,  the  very  men  who  have  fought  and 
opposed  the  missionary  at  home,  have  meanly 
crawled  behind  him  abroad,  to  gather  an  infamous 
profit  from  the  trade  in  drunkenness  and  death, 
along  the  paths  which  they  would  not  have  dared 
to  open.  But  that  is  their  fault,  their  sin,  their 
shame.  The  man  who  makes  a  road  is  a  bene- 
factor. The  man  who  uses  it  to  carry  poison  to 
his  fellow-men  is  a  miscreant.  But  for  all  that, 
road-making  is  an  honorable  and  a  useful  work. 
Missionaries  have  done  more  to  make  safe  high- 
ways through  the  world  than  any  other  set  of 
men.  And  to-day  clean  commerce,  honest  com- 
merce, legitimate  commerce  gets  more  returns 
from  missions  in  a  year  than  all  the  money  that 
the  Church  has  ever  put  into  them. 

What  do  you  call  success  ?     Is  it  a  success  to 
make  vast  contributions   to  human  science  and 


loo  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

literature  ?  Then  missions  have  succeeded,  for 
the  **  Prince  of  Geographers,"  Carl  Ritter,  says 
that  without  them  his  books  could  not  have  been 
written  ;  Max  Miiller  says  that  their  contributions 
to  philology  and  history  are  invaluable  and  indis- 
pensable ;  there  is  not  one  of  the  departments  of 
botany  or  zoology  or  meteorology  which  they 
have  not  enriched ;  the  knowledge  of  the  languages 
of  the  earth  has  been  more  advanced  by  the  effort 
to  render  the  Bible  into  every  tongue  than  by  all 
other  causes  put  together. 

What  do  you  call  success?  Is  it  a  success  to 
adorn  the  page  of  history  with  glorious  examples 
of  faith  and  courage  and  self-sacrifice?  Then 
missions  have  succeeded ;  for  there  is  no  roll  of 
honor  that  shines  with  brighter  names  than  the 
list  of  men  and  women  who  have  given  their  lives 
to  bring  the  heathen  to  Christ,  and  won  the 
martyr's  crown,  in  Burmese  prisons  and  Indian 
massacres,  among  the  snow-clad  mountains  of 
Thibet  and  the  burning  desert  of  Arabia,  on  the 
cliffs  of  Madagascar  and  beside  the  rivers  of  China, 
on  the  shining  sands  of  South  Sea  Islands  and 
beneath  the  black  shadow  of  African  forests.  Man- 
hood seems  crowned,  ennobled,  glorified  when  we 
look  at  the  heroism  of  Christian  missionaries. 
And  I  dare  you  to  put  our  easy,  selfish,  inglorious 


A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  loi 

lives  beside  these  names  which  shall  live  for  ever, 
and  then  say  that  they  have  failed  and  we  have 
succeeded. 

What  do  you  call  success  ?  Is  it  a  success  to 
win  souls  for  Christ  out  of  the  very  heart  of 
heathendom,  and  plant  real  and  living  churches 
in  the  ancient  abode  of  darkness  and  death? 
Then  missions  have  succeeded.  Let  me  tell  you 
just  what  our  own  missionary  enterprise  has 
accomplished.  Thirty  years  ago  we  had  three 
thousand  heathen  converts.  To-day  we  have 
forty-four  thousand ;  fourteenfold  increase ;  while 
the  Church  at  home  has  only  doubled.  We  have 
fifty-three  churches  in  Mexico,  and  ten  in  Africa, 
and  seventy-three  in  China,  and  thirty-six  in  Japan, 
and  twenty-nine  in  Syria,  and  twenty-six  in 
Persia,  and  more  than  two  hundred  partly  organ- 
ized in  Korea.  We  have  nearly  thirty  thousand 
pupils  in  our  schools.  And  last  year  alone  more 
than  five  thousand  persons  stood  up,  in  the  face 
of  dangers  and  difficulties  which  you  cannot  even 
begin  to  imagine,  and  confessed  Jesus  Christ  as 
the  Son  of  God. 

Now  I  say  nothing  of  the  broader  work  of  mis- 
sions, which  cannot  be  tabulated — the  work  of 
spreading  the  general  principles  of  Christianity 
among  new  peoples,  the  work  of  education,  the 


I02  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

work  of  healing  the  sick,  the  work  of  letting  in 
the  light  upon  the  darkness  of  idolatry  and  pre- 
paring the  way  for  the  coming  of  the  kingdom. 
But  taking  the  net  results  as  they  can  be  counted, 
I  say  they  are  wonderful  and  hopeful.  And  when 
you,  my  brother,  have  found  one  hardened  sinner 
at  home,  and  turned  him  from  error,  and  brought 
him  into  the  Church  of  Christ,  against  the  oppo- 
sition of  his  friends  and  family,  and  at  the  sacri- 
fice of  his  worldly  prospects — then,  and  not  till 
then — will  you  have  a  right  to  find  fault  with 
the  missionary  enterprise  which  has  done  that 
thing  for  thousands  of  heathen  while  you  have 
been  sitting  still  and  finding  fault. 

5.  '*  Foreign  peoples  have  their  own  civilizations 
and  religions,  and  therefore  we  need  not  trouble 
ourselves  about  them." 

Yes,  they  have  ;  but  that  is  the  very  reason  why 
we  must  "  trouble  ourselves  about  them."  Their 
civilizations  are  full  of  degradation,  of  oppres- 
sion, of  cruelty,  under  which  women  groan,  and 
children  perish,  and  men  live  like  beasts.  Their 
religions  are  often  tinctured  with  sad  and  gloomy 
superstitions,  or  embodied  in  rituals  of  blood 
and  shame.  Think  of  the  religions  of  Africa 
which  teach  men  to  slay  and  devour  one  another; 
the  religions  of  India  with  their  licentious    rites 


A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  103 

and  brutal  adorations.  Think  of  the  civilization 
of  China.  Let  your  fancy  picture  those  nightly 
processions  through  the  streets  of  Chinese  cities, 
long  files  of  young  blind  girls  decked  with  gar- 
lands for  the  sacrifice  of  lust ;  friendless,  helpless, 
homeless ;  marching  each  with  her  hands  upon 
the  shoulders  of  the  one  before  her ;  groping  their 
way  through  an  endless  midnight  to  sin  and 
shame  and  suffering  and  death.  Tell  me,  is  that 
kind  of  civilization  a  reason  why  you  should  not 
"  trouble  yourself  about  the  heathen  ?  " 

What  have  Confucius  and  Buddha  done  for 
these  captives,  victims,  sufferers  ?  What  do  they 
propose  to  do  ?  Nothing.  The  only  thing  that 
can  help  them  is  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  And 
because  He  has  given  it  to  you,  you  owe  it  to 
them.  It  is  a  debt  from  which  you  cannot  escape, 
save  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  instincts  of  your  human- 
ity and  the  promises  of  your  religion.  If  you 
have  no  pity  for  others,  what  right  have  you  to 
expect  that  God  will  have  pity  for  you  ? 

Well  then,  how  shall  this  debt  be  paid  ?  What 
shall  we  do  to  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature? 

There  are  three  ways  in  which  we  may  help  the 
cause : — 

I.  We  maj  help  by  personal  consecration  of  the 
heart  and  life  to  this  service.     That  is  the  noblest 


I04  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

way ;  the  way  of  highest  honor  and  most  costly 
sacrifice.  Would  that  some  of  you  in  this  church, 
young  men  and  young  women  to  whom  the  Mas- 
ter has  given  so  much,  might  feel  the  mighty  de- 
sire to  preach  the  gospel,  and  say  to  the  Lord, 
"  Here  am  I,  send  me."  That  would  be  a  crown 
of  glory  on  your  life. 

II.  The  next  way  to  help  the  cause  is  to  give 
money  to  it.  If  you  cannot  go  into  the  field 
yourself,  you  ought  to  have  a  substitute.  How 
easy  it  would  be  for  some  of  you  to  say,  "  I  will 
have  my  own  missionary,  my  own  messenger  of 
Christ  to  the  heathen,"  and  to  give  the  pledge 
which  would  fill  another  place  in  the  front  rank 
of  the  battle,  and  keep  another  voice  testifying  to 
the  love  of  Jesus  in  the  dark  places.  I  do  not 
say  you  would  not  miss  the  money.  You  would 
miss  it ;  and  that  is  the  reason  why  you  ought  to 
give  it.  You  have  found  little  joy  or  comfort  in 
giving  to  missions  hitherto,  just  because  you  have 
not  given  enough  to  feel  it.  Try  the  other  plan. 
If  you  gave  five  dollars  last  year,  give  ten  this 
year.  If  it  was  fifty  dollars,  take  the  pen  and 
write  one  hundred.  Make  a  sacrifice.  Deny 
yourself  something.  Then  you  will  begin  to 
feel  that  your  religion  is  real,  and  that  you  have 
a  share  in  witnessing  for  Christ  to  the  ends  of 


A  BRIEF  FOR  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  105 

the  earth.  Our  missionary  enterprise  Is  stagger- 
ing and  halting  to-day  because  the  Church  does 
not  support  It.  Men  and  women  are  waiting 
to  go,  but  they  cannot  go  because  you  will  not 
send  them.  Bear  a  hand  In  the  work — not  a 
little  finger,  but  a  whole  hand — and  give  to  mis- 
sions in  such  a  way  that  you  will  know  that  you 
have  given,  and  then  the  heathen  will  know  It, 
and  your  Master  will  know  it  and  reward  you 
for  it. 

III.  The  last  way  to  help  the  cause  of  missions ^ 
and  the  greatest,  is  to  pray  for  it.  But  I  do  not 
think  we  have  any  right  to  use  that  way  unless 
we  also  follow  one  of  the  others. 


VI 

THE   MAKING   OF  ST.  JOHN 


VI 

THE  MAKING  OF  ST.  JOHN 

"  Lord,  wilt  thou  that  we  command  fire  to  come  down  from 
heaven,  and  consume  them?" — Luke  ix.  54. 

"  Beloved,  let  us  love  one  another  :  for  love  is  of  God ;  and 
every  one  that  loveth  is  born  of  God,  and  knoweth  God." — 
I  John  iv.  7. 

The  common  conception  of  the  person  and 
character  of  the  apostle  John  regards  him  as  a 
soft,  affectionate  dreamer.  We  imagine  him  as  he 
is  usually  drawn  by  the  painters,  a  fair,  effeminate 
youth,  with  long  curling  hair,  and  a  lackadaisical 
expression.  Now  that  he  was  a  youth  is  certain ; 
that  he  was  of  a  fair  countenance  is  possible,  per- 
haps even  probable ;  but  that  he  was  in  any  sense 
effeminate  is  an  utter  misconception.  He  was  no 
idle  dreamer  of  dreams,  no  mild  religious  mystic. 
He  and  his  brother  James  were  called  Boa7ierges, 
sons  of  thunder,  men  of  fiery  courage,  mighty 
power.  His  symbol  was  not  the  meek  and  mel- 
ancholy dove  mourning  in  solitude,  but  the  royal 
eagle,  broad  of  wing,  keen  of  eye,  sweeping  with 
fearless  breast  far  up  into  the  azure,  bathed  in  the 

109 


no  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

full  splendors  of  God's  sunlight.  John  was  no  deli- 
cate, luxurious  religionist,  content  to  be  **  carried 
to  the  skies  on  flavVfery  beds  of  ease."  He  had 
his  own  fight  to  wage,  his  own  temptations  to 
vanquish,  his  own  adversary  in  the  heart  to  con- 
quer. And  because  he  fought  the  fight  bravely, 
enduring  hardship  as.ixecometh  a  .good  soldier, 
his  Master  loved  hirfr  with  a  peculiar'  love. 

In  looking  at  the  development  of  the  character 
of  John,  as  it  is  recorded  in  the  gospels  and  his 
own  epistles,  we  shall  find  a  course  of  affairs 
which  is  best  summed  up  in  two  words : — 

Antagonism  and  transformation. 

I.  First,  I  think,  we  shall  see  the  character  of 
John  in  antagonism  to  his  Master.  Certain 
natural  qualities  and  traits  in  the  man  put  him 
out  of  sympathy  with  Jesus  in  the  methods  which 
He  pursued  in  establishing  His  kingdom.  John 
was  inclined  to  a  different  course.  He  found 
himself  in  opposition,  dissatisfied,  perhaps  even 
angry. 

The  first  of  these  antagonistic  qualities,  and 
probably  the  most  fundamental,  was  a  hot  and 
zealous  temper.  His  nature  was  quick,  high- 
strung,  impetuous.  He  was  full  of  fire  and  force. 
Believing  in  Jesus  with  all  his  heart,  John  wished 
an  instant  and  complete  success  for  his  ministry. 


THE  MAKING  OF   ST.  JOHN  iii 

Slow,  patient  teaching  is  well  enough ;  healing 
the  sick  is  well  enough ;  provided  they  succeed. 
But  if  they  do  not,  if  the  people  will  not  believe, 
some  more  heroic  measure  must  be  tried.  Men 
must  come  into  the  kingdom  of  God :  be  per- 
suaded in,  drawn  in,  led  in,  if  possible;  but  if  not, 
they  must  be  frightened  in,  driven  in ;  any  way 
they  must  come  in.  Christ's  kingdom  must 
arrive  at  once,  and  if  any  man  stand  in  the  way 
let  him  be  burned  with  fire. 

It  was  this  headlong,  untrained  zeal  that  made 
John  flame  out  so  when  passing  through  the 
inhospitable  towns  of  Samaria.  "  What  right," 
he  cried,  "  what  right  have  these  people  to  stand 
in  thy  way,  O  Lord  ?  What  right  have  they  to 
let  their  narrow  national  bigotry  blind  their  eyes, 
and  harden  their  hearts,  and  shut  their  doors 
against  the  Christ?  Shall  we  command  fire  to 
break  out  from  heaven,  as  Elias  did  to  his  ene- 
mies, and  consume  them  ?"  How  gentle  was  the 
rebuke,  how  wise  the  answer  of  Jesus  to  this 
question  of  John :  "  You  do  not  yet  understand 
the  spirit  of  my  gospel,  the  spirit  of  love  and 
peace.  I  am  come  to  persuade  men,  not  to 
force  them.  If  men  are  evil,  I  am  not  sent  to 
slay  and  burn  them,  but  to  win  them  by  the 
truth  and  save  them  from  their  sins.     We  must 


112  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

SOW  in  patience  and  hope.  God  will  give  the 
increase  in  His  own  good  time." 

The  second  quality  of  antagonism  in  John  was 
his  ambition.  That  last  infirmity  of  noble  minds 
was  the  natural  growth  of  such  a  character  as 
his.  His  clear  fine  spirit  desired  a  lofty  place. 
He  wanted  glory  and  honor  and  power.  His 
mind  was  still  possessed  by  the  idea  that  Christ's 
kingdom  was  to  have  a  physical  manifestation, 
was  to  unfold  into  a  splendid  domination  of  the 
earth.  Filled  with  this  thought  he  and  his  brother 
James  came  to  Jesus  begging  that  they  might  sit 
enthroned  on  either  side  of  Him.  How  that  vain 
request  must  have  hurt  Jesus !  "  Can  ye  bear  the 
sorrows  and  pains  that  I  must  bear  ?"  "  Yea, 
Lord,"  reply  the  overconfident  disciples.  "  Ye 
shall  indeed  bear  my  sorrows  and  endure  my 
anguish,  and  experience  shall  teach  you  how 
blind  you  have  been.  I  cannot  confer  the  glory 
of  God's  kingdom  by  arbitrary  favor,  as  govern- 
ment offices  are  conferred.  It  is  the  fruit  and  the 
reward  of  character.  Make  yourself  fit  for  it, 
learn  to  be  as  pure  and  teachable  as  a  little  child, 
and  leave  the  rest  to  your  heavenly  Father." 

n.  Now  you  observe  in  regard  to  both  of  these 
antagonizing  qualities  in  His  young  disciple,  that 
the  method  of  Jesus  was  not  eradication  but  trans- 


THE  MAKING  OF  ST.  JOHN  113 

formation.  He  did  not  despise  and  condemn  them 
as  utterly  bad.  He  recognized  zeal  and  ambition 
as  natural  forces,  to  be  changed,  directed,  trans- 
formed into  mighty  agencies  for  good.  And  that 
is  what  Jesus  did  for  John.  By  constant,  patient 
teaching,  but  most  of  all  by  the  power  of  His 
example,  Jesus  gave  these  qualities  a  higher  form 
and  guided  them  into  their  true  channels.  I  can 
conceive  of  no  influence  more  potent  to  enlighten 
and  ennoble  such  a  character  as  John's  than  a 
life  of  constant  contact  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
How  it  must  have  sanctified  and  illumined  his 
zeal  to  see  his  Master  laboring  so  earnestly  and 
patiently  to  win  souls,  enduring  the  contradiction 
of  sinners,  praying  for  His  enemies,  and  giving 
His  life  as  a  ransom  for  those  who  hated  Him ! 
Think  how  it  must  have  purified  and  chastened 
John's  ambition  to  see  our  blessed  Lord,  at  the 
Last  Supper,  bend  to  wash  the  disciples  feet! 
That  glorious  example  taught  John  more  than  all 
formal  doctrine.  It  had  a  mysterious  blessed 
power  to  transform  his  very  life. 

We  cannot  trace  more  closely  the  process  of 
transformation  in  the  character  of  John.  But  we 
can  see  the  result  in  his  life  and  labors.  Those 
very  qualities  which  were  his  weakness  became 
his  strength.     Those  traits  which  once  put  him  in 


114  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

antagonism  to  Christ,  afterward  bound  him  most 
closely  to  his  Master  in  love  and  service. 

His  fiery  zeal  was  purified  and  exalted  into  a 
clear,  passionate  desire  to  win  souls  in  the  way 
which  Christ  had  appointed.  The  divine  commis- 
sion, "  Go,  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature," 
took  hold  of  John's  heart  and  filled  it  with  eager 
courage.  He  went  out  with  Peter,  preaching  and 
teaching  and  building  up  the  churches  of  Judaea. 
When  the  Christians  were  expelled  by  persecu- 
tion from  Jerusalem,  it  was  John  who  gathered 
them  together  in  a  place  of  refuge.  Then,  accord- 
ing to  the  most  ancient  tradition,  he  went  down 
into  Asia  to  follow  up  and  complete  the  labors 
of  Paul.  He  finally  remained  as  bishop  and  pas- 
tor of  the  Church  at  Ephesus. 

See  now  what  has  become  of  John's  ambition. 
He  is  content  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  another 
apostle,  to  dwell  in  a  distant  city  of  the  Gentiles, 
in  poverty  and  reproach,  to  accept  an  office  in  the 
feeble  and  persecuted  Church  of  Jesus  as  the  end 
of  his  life.  Love  to  Christ  has  regenerated  even 
his  desires,  has  become  the  supreme  and  regnant 
passion,  has  made  him  ambitious  only  to  serve 
and  be  like  his  beloved  Master. 

It  was  in  this  spirit  that  John  accepted  the 
bishopric  and   ruled  in  Ephesus.     Love  was  the 


THE  MAKING  OF  ST.  JOHN  115 

centre  and  theme  of  his  ministry.  He  taught 
love,  preached  love,  practiced  love.  Many  and 
beautiful  are  the  traditions  of  his  life.  It  is  said 
that  at  one  time  a  noble  and  amiable  youth  was 
committed  by  his  parents  to  the  guardianship  of 
John.  He  was  obliged  to  go  away  on  a  long 
journey  and  left  his  ward  in  the  care  of  some  of 
the  brethren.  On  the  Apostle's  return  he  was 
told  that  the  youth  had  fallen  into  evil  ways,  had 
been  tempted  off  into  the  wilderness  by  a  band 
of  desperate  robbers,  and  had  become  their  leader. 
John  was  filled  with  sorrow  and  self-reproach. 
He  went  out  into  the  wild  country,  penetrated  to 
the  stronghold  of  the  robbers'  band,  seized  the 
young  man  by  the  hand,  kissed  it,  and  calling 
him  by  his  familiar  name,  brought  him  back  again 
to  Ephesus. 

Filled  with  such  labors  of  love  and  glorified 
with  visions  of  heavenly  mysteries,  the  long  years 
of  the  apostle  wear  away.  Out  in  the  great 
Church  of  Ephesus,  one  Sunday  morning,  a  vast 
congregation  is  gathered.  They  are  waiting  for 
some  one.  A  wide  sea  of  faces  is  turned  upward. 
An  expectant  hush  rests  over  the  crowd.  An  old 
man  is  borne  in  by  his  attendants.  His  long  hair 
and  beard  are  white  as  snow.  His  eyes  shine 
with  a  soft   and  gentle  light.     He  lifts  a  tremu- 


ii6  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

lous   hand.     His  voice  is  faint   and   slow   as    he 

speaks.     Hark ! 

"  Little  children,  love  one  another !" 

The  words   fall  like  a  benediction.     They  are 

the  last  words  of  that  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved. 

Now  let  us  dwell  for  a  few  moments  on  the 
practical  lessons  to  be  drawn  from  this  great  and 
beautiful  change  in  the  life  of  John,  and  see  how 
they  bear  upon  our  own  relations  to  Jesus  Christ 
and  our  discipleship  to  Him.  There  are  three 
truths  which  seem  to  lie  embedded  in  this  experi- 
ence of  the  apostle. 

I.  Natural  qualities  which  put  us  into  antagon- 
ism to  Christ  ought  not  to  drive  us  away  from 
Him. 

There  are  many  traits  and  dispositions,  desires 
and  qualities  in  human  nature  which  put  men  in 
a  position  of  unsympathy  with  the  religion  of 
Christ,  make  them  feel  uneasy  and  discontented 
under  His  guidance,  dispose  them  to  hang  back 
from  His  service.  Some  of  these  traits  of  char- 
acter are  evil  in  themselves,  such  as  untruthful- 
ness, selfishness,  intemperance.  And  these  are 
things  to  which  no  man  ought  to  cling.  They 
are  stains  upon  his  life,  and  he  ought  to  rejoice 
that  in  following  Christ  he    must   trample  these 


THE  MAKING  OF  ST.  JOHN  117 

shameful  and  unmanly  things  under  his  feet. 
Surely  no  one  of  you  will  be  kept  away  from 
Christ  by  the  reluctance  to  give  up  that  which 
degrades  your  character,  and  makes  you  base  and 
unworthy  even  in  the  scale  of  manhood.  But  it  is 
not  of  these  things  that  I  wish  to  speak  so  much 
as  of  those  qualities  not  good  or  bad  in  them- 
selves, but  depending  entirely  upon  the  objects  to 
which  they  are  directed,  and  the  way  in  which 
they  are  exercised. 

Take  such  a  quality  as  physical  courage  and 
strength.  There  are  many  young  men  who  are 
kept  away  from  the  Church  by  a  false  notion  that 
these  things  are  out  of  place  there — that  a  Chris- 
tian has  no  use  for  bravery  and  vigor,  no  scope 
for  the  exercise  of  well-trained  bodily  powers  and 
a  bold,  fearless  spirit.  But  where  do  we  find  such 
a  notion  of  life  save  in  the  morbid  theories  of 
weak  fanatics.  The  Christian  must  indeed  keep 
his  body  and  spirit  under  control,  he  must  not  be 
a  mere  animal  or  a  reckless  bravo;  but  within 
those  limits  he  may  exercise  all  his  daring  and 
skill  and  strength.  The  Church  has  need  of  brave 
soldiers,  strong  laborers,  dauntless  explorers. 
Where  would  she  be  now  had  it  not  been  for  the 
bravery  and  endurance  of  those  first  apostles  of 
the  gospel  ?    Where  would  our  Protestant  Church 


Ii8  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

be  had  not  the  Reformers  known  how  to  wield 
the  sword  as  well  as  read  the  Bible  ?  Is  not  the 
world  better  and  more  Christian  for  the  bravery 
of  Luther  and  Livingstone  and  Havelock'?  "I 
write  unto  you  young  men  because  you  are 
strong."  That  was  a  good  reason ;  for  Jesus 
Christ  has  need  of  strong  and  brave  disciples,  to 
stand  up  well  against  the  assaults  of  evil,  to  push 
through  desert  and  jungle,  over  mountains  and 
stormy  seas  with  the  message  of  the  gospel,  to 
endure  hardness  as  good  soldiers,  to  fight  and  not 
be  weary,  to  run  and  not  faint. 

An  eager  and  impetuous  zeal  often  puts  men 
out  of  sympathy  with  Christ.  They  find  Chris- 
tianity too  slow,  too  imperfect  in  its  methods  and 
results.  Sometimes  this  zeal  takes  the  form  of 
self-criticism.  Men  say  :  "  I  w^ant  a  religion  that 
shall  make  me  good  altogether  and  at  once.  I 
want  to  feel  that  I  am  utterly  changed,  transfigured, 
renewed ;  and  the  lack  of  this  is  what  keeps  me 
away  from  Christ."  Is  that  true  ?  Are  you 
sincere?  Then  how  mad  you  are  to  stay  away 
from  Christ.  For  where  else  shall  you  find  even 
the  beginnings  of  that  blessed  change  which  you 
desire  ?  Is  it  not  better  to  have  it  slowly  than 
not  at  all  ?  And  if  you  come  to  Him,  you  will 
find  that  your  zeal  to  be  made  holy  is  not  half 


THE  MAKING  OF  ST.  JOHN  119 

so  great  as  His  willingness  to  help  you  and  to 
perfect  His  will  in  your  life. 

But  more  often  this  antagonistic  overzeal  ex- 
presses itself  in  harsh  criticism  of  the  Church  and 
dissatisfaction  with  her  success.  Men  complain 
that  so  few  Christians  are  ChristHke  and  so  few 
sinners  are  converted.  Now  if  that  be  merely  a 
hypocritical  excuse  for  avoiding  the  service  of 
Christ  there  is  nothing  to  be  said.  There  is  no 
Pharisaism  so  contemptible  or  so  incorrigible. 
But  if  it  spring  from  an  honest  and  fervent  zeal 
for  the  cause  of  Christ  and  a  longing  that  His 
kingdom  may  have  a  wider  and  more  glorious 
success,  then  it  will  not  stand  outside  and  spend 
its  strength  in  bitter  criticism,  but  come  inside  and 
labor  earnestly  for  reformation.  And  the  more 
eagerly  and  zealously  men  labor  for  the  kingdom 
of  Christ,  the  better  they  will  understand  that  His 
methods  are  the  best,  and  that  the  kingdom  is 
to  be  established  not  by  calling  down  fire  from 
heaven,  but  by  the  earnest,  patient  teaching  of 
divine  truth  and  the  manifestation  of  Christlike 
love. 

2.  These  very  qualities  which  seem  at  first, 
antagonistic,  may  become  the  noblest  and  most 
blessed  in  the  service  of  Christ. 

He  does  not  propose  to  eradicate  and  destroy 


I20  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

them,  but  to  purify,  direct,  and  use  them  in  His 
kingdom,  as  the  skillful  inventor  binds  the  winds 
to  industry  and  makes  the  rushing  torrents  do  his 
work.  I  have  spoken  of  the  noble  tasks  which 
physical  courage  and  strength  have  performed 
for  Christ.  The  life  of  John  has  shown  us  how 
a  high-strung  and  ambitious  nature  may  be  used 
in  His  service.  What  a  grand  quality  is  zeal 
when  it  is  sanctified  and  guided  by  a  true  devo- 
tion to  Christ !  That  zeal  which  makes  martyrs 
and  missionaries  and  reformers — that  is  what  the 
Church  needs  to-day,  a  zeal  that  shall  make  us 
restless  and  discontented  in  the  right  way :  not 
discontented  with  the  plans  and  methods  of  Christ, 
but  with  our  own  feeble  and  imperfect  execution 
of  them ;  so  that  we  shall  strive  to  make  Chris- 
tianity more  active,  more  thorough,  more  aggres- 
sive, to  remove  the  obstacles,  the  shameful  and 
harmful  inconsistencies,  to  clear  the  way  so  that 
the  gospel  of  Christ  may  have  free  course  and  be 
glorified. 

So  also  of  true  ambition.  It  can  be  made  most 
useful  and  glorious  in  the  service  of  Christ. 
"Covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts,"  wrote  the  apostle 
Paul.  What  a  noble  and  blessed  ambition  was 
his !  To  climb  ever  higher  and  higher  in  his 
spiritual    attainments,    to    be     more    and    more 


THE  MAKING  OF  ST.  JOHN  121 

effective  in  his  labors  for  Christ.  If  we  could 
only  get  more  of  this  right  ambition  how  it 
would  purify  and  ennoble  our  modern  life !  We 
should  be  rid  of  the  insane  thirst  for  office  in 
church  and  state.  We  should  desire  not  to  be 
famous,  but  to  do  good ;  not  to  rule,  but  to  be 
fit  for  it.  We  should  long  for  character  rather 
than  reputation,  for  inward  merit  rather  than  out- 
ward honor.  Our  aspirations  after  a  pure  and 
lofty  life  would  lift  us  above  our  present  mean- 
ness and  littleness,  and  we  should  press  eagerly 
toward  the  mark,  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling 
of  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 

3.  Learn,  finally,  that  the  way  to  have  our 
natures  thus  nobly  transformed  is  by  a  close  and 
living  contact  with  Christ.  His  teaching.  His 
example.  His  companionship  alone  can  change  us 
into  His  image. 

There  is  an  eastern  legend  of  a  rose  so  sweet 
that  even  the  earth  which  lies  around  its  roots 
becomes  permeated  with  fragrance  and  little  bits 
of  it  are  sold  as  amulets  and  worn  by  princes. 
You  and  I  are  but  common  clay,  but  if  we  will 
lie  close  to  Jesus  Christ,  His  sweetness  will  flow 
through  our  very  lives  and  make  them  fragrant 
and  precious  for  ever. 


VII 
THE  ANGEL  OF   GOD'S  FACE 


VII 

THE   ANGEL  OF  GOD'S   FACE 

"  In  all  their  affliction  He  was  afflicted,  and  the  angel  of  His 
presence  saved  them." — ISA.  Ixiii.  9. 

There  is  a  difference  between  our  theories 
about  God  and  our  thoughts  of  God.  If  you  and 
I  were  perfect  in  knowledge  and  wisdom,  if  there 
were  no  separation  between  our  intellectual  and 
practical  life,  if  reason  and  love  were  in  complete 
harmony,  if  we  really  knew  all  that  we  feel  and 
really  felt  all  that  we  know,  then,  of  course,  there 
would  not  be  any  possibility  of  such  a  difference. 
Our  theories  about  God,  which  are  our  theology, 
and  our  thoughts  of  God,  which  are  our  religion, 
would  be  in  clear  and  sweet  and  perfect  unity.  And 
surely  this  would  be  a  blessed  and  happy  thing 
for  us;  this  would  be  true  spiritual  peace  and 
joy;  this  would  be  the  deepest  inward  rest  and 
satisfaction. 

Let  me  try  to  make  this  plain  to  you. 
You  have  a  theory  of  friendship.  You  reason 
about  it  as  something  of  which  human  nature  is 

125 


126  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

capable.  You  form  a  conception  of  its  different 
elements,  of  its  true  conditions,  of  its  modes  of 
action,  of  its  powers  and  possibilities.  And  that 
theory  of  friendship  is  a  good  thing  for  you  to 
have.  It  is  precious.  It  elevates  and  cheers  your 
mind.  But  presently,  as  you  go  on  your  way 
through  the  world,  you  find  a  friend :  one  who 
comes  close  to  you  in  that  mysterious  contact  of 
personalities  which  is  the  most  wonderful  thing  in 
the  world;  one  who  knows  you,  cares  for  you, 
loves  you,  gives  you  the  sacred  gifts  of  fellow- 
ship and  help.  Trouble  befalls  you.  Your  friend 
stands  by  you,  strengthens  you,  counsels  you, 
helps  you  to  fight  your  way  out  of  that  which  is 
conquerable  and  to  endure  patiently  that  which  is 
inevitable.  Sorrow  enters  your  house.  Your 
friend  is  there,  sharing  your  grief,  bearing  it  with 
you  and  for  you,  coming  closer  to  you  than  ever 
before,  and  quieting  your  wounded  heart  with 
sympathy, 

"  Like  the  song  of  a  mother  who  soothes  into  rest 
The  tired  child  lying  at  peace  on  her  breast." 

And  now  your  theories  of  friendship  are  translated 
into  your  thoughts  of  your  friend.  They  are 
clarified,  corrected  it  may  be,  purified  and  inten- 
sified if  your  experience  is  a  deep  and  true  one; 


THE  ANGEL  OF  GOD'S  FACE  127 

at  all  events,  they  are  transformed  into  something 
very  different  from  what  they  were  before.  Once 
you  reasoned  about  them ;  now  you  feel  them. 
Once  they  belonged  to  your  philosophy;  now 
they  belong  to  your  life.  Once  you  believed  in 
friendship ;  now  you  trust  your  friend. 

It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  just  this  strange  and 
beautiful  transformation  of  abstract  theory  into 
living  thought  that  God  means  to  work  out  in  our 
relations  with  Him  by  the  experience  of  life.  He 
reveals  certain  truths  to  us  about  Himself.  Or, 
if  you  like  to  put  it  in  another  way,  reason  leads  us 
to  certain  conclusions  in  regard  to  Him.  He  is 
infinite,  eternal,  and  unchangeable  in  His  being, 
wisdom,  power,  righteousness,  holiness,  justice, 
goodness,  and  truth.  We  believe  that.  Our  minds 
assent  to  such  a  noble  statement.  Yes,  but  God 
wants  us  to  go  beyond  that.  He  wants  us  to 
know  Him ;  for  only  personal  knowledge,  only 
knowledge  that  is  woven  into  the  very  fabric  of 
our  souls,  abides  with  us  for  ever. 

Our  theories  about  God  are  our  theology.  It  is 
well  to  value  them,  to  be  careful  of  them,  to  try 
our  best  to  keep  them  pure  and  high.  But  the 
deeper  question  is.  What  is  our  religion  ?  What 
are  our  real  thoughts  of  God  ?  In  that  deep  and 
secret  place  of  our  inmost  consciousness,  where 


128  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

all  our  desires  and  feelings  and  hopes  and  aspira- 
tions are  born,  what  is  God  to  us  ?  This  is  the 
great  question,  the  searching  question.  And  on 
the  answer  to  it  our  peace,  our  happiness,  our 
usefulness  depend. 

We  say  that  God  is  perfect  in  wisdom.  But  do 
we  feel  that  He  is  wise  for  us  ?  Do  we  trust  His 
wisdom  to  guide  and  direct  us  ?  Do  we  think  of 
Him  as  the  one  who  always  knows  what  is  best 
for  us  ? 

We  say  that  God  is  perfect  in  righteousness. 
But  do  we  know  Him  as  "  the  Lord,  our  righteous- 
ness"? Do  we  trust  assuredly  in  Him  to  cleanse 
us  from  the  guilt  and  deliver  us  from  the  power 
of  sin  ?  Do  we  yield  ourselves  to  His  will  and 
purpose  to  purify  and  perfect  us  by  the  discipline 
of  life  ? 

We  say  that  God  is  omnipresent : — 

"  His  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean  and  the  living  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man ; 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things." 

It  is  a  grand  doctrine,  an  inspiring  doctrine,  this 
of  the  Divine  omnipresence.     But  do  we  think 


THE  ANGEL  OF  GOD'S  FACE 


129 


of  God  as  present  with  us  personally  in  all  the 
experiences  of  life?  Such  a  thought  of  Him  is 
infinitely  more  needful,  infinitely  more  precious 
than  any  theory  of  His  omnipresence. 

Go  back  to  the  illustration  that  we  drew  from 
the  theory  of  friendship.  You  know  that  a  true 
friendship  must  have  in  it  a  wide  and  generous 
sympathy  with  all  the  trouble  that  there  is  in  the 
world.  But  when  trouble  comes  to  you,  you  want 
to  be  sure  that  your  friend  knows  of  it,  and  feels 
it,  and  is  ready  to  help  you  bear  it.  A  general 
thought  of  your  friend's  goodness  is  not  enough. 
What  you  long  for  is  the  saving  presence  of  a 
personal  sympathy. 

It  is  not  otherwise  in  our  relation  to  God. 
What  we  want,  to  speak  plainly,  is  to  feel  that 
God  knows  what  happens  to  us,  and  is  with  us 
while  it  happens,  and  loves  us  steadily  and  ten- 
derly through  it  all.  The  time  when  we  want  this 
most  is  in  the  time  of  affliction,  because  that  is 
the  time  when  it  is  hardest  to  find,  and  yet  with- 
out it  we  must  perish  in  despair.  In  prosperity, 
in  happiness,  we  feel  that  we  can  get  on,  after  a 
fashion,  without  God.  But  when  the  clouds 
gather  around  us  and  the  storms  descend,  when 
our  dreams  are  broken  and  our  dearest  treasures 
take  wings  and  fly  away,  then  we  know  that  to 
9 


I30  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

be  without  God  in  the  world  is  to  be  without 
hope.  Soon  or  late  that  time  comes  to  every 
man  and  woman.  Soon  or  late  we  cross  the  dry 
places  where  we  must  be  unutterably  lonely  unless 
God  is  with  us.  Soon  or  late  the  path  of  life  dips 
down  into  the  shadowed  valley  where  we  must 
walk  in  darkness  and  stumble  among  the  graves 
unless  the  Lord  God  giveth  us  light.  And  so  it 
seems  to  me  that  this  text  of  ours  is  like  a  lamp 
which  the  prophet  kindles  and  puts  into  our 
hands  that  we  may  use  it  when  we  need  it. 

You  may  not  all  of  you  feel  that  you  have  any 
necessity  for  it  just  now.  There  may  be  some 
of  you  to  whom  the  world  seems  all  bright; 
life  smooth  and  pleasant;  the  ways  of  Provi- 
dence as  plain  and  easy  to  understand  as  a  child's 
picture  book.  But  some  day  or  other  you 
will  stumble  over  something  and  fall,  and  when 
you  rise  and  look  about  you  the  world  will  be 
changed  :  it  will  look  very  dark  and  mysterious ; 
many  things  will  seem  to  be  against  you ;  there 
will  be  conflicts  and  fears  ;  you  will  stand  face  to 
face  with  that  which  dismays  you  and  makes 
your  heart  shrink  within  you  in  terror  of  great 
darkness.  Probably  most  of  you  have  known 
something  of  that  experience  already.  Bright 
as   your   lives   have   been,   some   shadows    have 


THE  ANGEL  OF  GOD'S  FACE 


131 


fallen  upon  them.  Even  the  young,  the  strong, 
the  fortunate,  the  light-hearted,  have  their  dis- 
appointments, their  misgivings,  their  trials,  their 
afflictions.  "  If  thou  hast  run  with  the  footmen, 
and  they  have  wearied  thee,  then  how  canst  thou 
contend  with  horses  ?  and  if  in  the  land  of  peace, 
wherein  thou  trustedst,  they  wearied  thee,  then 
how  wilt  thou  do  in  the  swelling  of  Jordan  ?" 
Yes,  we  all  of  us  need  something  of  the  strength 
and  cheer  and  comfort  and  guidance  which  dwell 
in  this  word  of  the  prophet.  Let  us  try  to  see 
what  it  means  to  translate  the  theory  of  God's 
omnipresence  into  the  hving  thought  that  God  is 
with  us  in  all  the  trials  and  troubles  of  life.  Let 
us  try  to  learn  how  it  is  that  the  angel  of  God's 
presence  saves  us  in  the  midst  of  our  afflictions. 

L  This  truth  cannot  mean  anything  to  us  un- 
less we  realize  what  kind  of  a  presence  it  is  of 
which  the  prophet  speaks.  And  surely  this 
ought  not  to  be  hard  to  discover  and  understand. 
He  looks  backward  over  the  tribulations  and 
distresses  of  Israel,  this  man  of  God,  himself  a 
man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief,  and  as 
he  surveys  the  long  story  of  troubles  and  suffer- 
ing he  sees  God's  presence  shining  through  it 
all,  like  the  face  of  a  friend.  In  the  joy  of  this 
vision  the  prophet  speaks  for  God.    "  In  all  their 


132  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

affliction  He  was  afflicted,  and  the  angel  of  His 
face  " — the  angel  who  stands  before  His  face  con- 
tinually, or,  it  may  be,  the  angel  who  repre- 
sents and  reveals  Him  as  the  face  reveals  the 
spirit — "  the  angel  of  His  face  saved  them." 

Now  surely  this  means,  first  of  all,  a  gracious, 
friendly,  loving,  sympathizing  presence.  God  is 
with  us  in  our  troubles,  not  merely  because  He 
has  to  be  there,  since  He  is  everywhere.  He  is 
there  because  He  wants  to  be.  Just  as  truly  as 
you  desire  to  be  near  your  friends,  your  children, 
when  they  suffer,  just  so  truly  does  God  desire 
and  choose  to  be  near  us  in  our  afflictions.  He 
would  not  be  away  from  us  even  if  He  could. 
He  is  not  present  as  a  mere  spectator,  looking  at 
us  curiously  while  we  suffer.  That  cold  and  dis- 
tant conception  of  Him  as  the  great  on-looker, — 

"  Who  sees  with  equal  eyes  as  God  of  all 
A  hero  perish  or  a  sparrow  fall," 

is  not  the  thought  of  the  Bible.  He  is  with  us 
as  one  who  has  the  deepest  interest  in  it  all,  feels 
all  that  happens  to  us,  cares  infinitely  for  us 
through  it  all.  Nor  is  He  present  merely  as  the 
author  of  our  pains  and  sorrows  who  could  have 
spared  us  from  them  if  He  would,  but  who  insists 
upon  inflicting  them  on  us,  whatever  it  may  cost 


THE  ANGEL  OF  GOD'S  FACE  133 

us  to  bear  them.  It  costs  Him  as  much  as  it 
costs  us.  "  He  doth  not  willingly  afflict  nor  grieve 
the  children  of  men."  There  is  a  wondrous 
power  in  the  precise  words  in  which  the  prophet 
voices  this  profound  truth.  Literally  they  are 
translated,  "In  all  their  adversity  He  was  no 
adversary." 

How  that  thought  glows  with  light !  The 
deepest  gloom  of  adversity  comes  from  the  idea 
that  God  must  be  against  us.  How  can  He  be 
good  and  yet  afflict  the  world  so  bitterly  ?  How 
can  He  be  loving  and  yet  pierce  us  with  the 
arrows  of  pain,  and  torture  us  with  loathsome 
diseases,  and  crush  our  hearts  with  disappoint- 
ment, and  smite  the  innocent  little  children  with 
death  ?  We  must  face  the  question,  for  it  is  a 
part  of  our  life.  We  cannot  run  away  from  it. 
We  ought  not  to  cover  it  up  with  flowery  words. 
The  only  answer  to  it  comes  along  the  line  of 
this  blessed  text. 

Even  in  the  midst  of  our  adversities  God  is  not 
our  adversary.  These  things  are  not  His  works. 
They  are  the  works  of  human  sin  and  folly  and 
perversity — a  strange  power,  a  hostile  power — 
hostile  to  Him  as  to  us.  Why  He  has  permitted 
it  to  enter  the  world  we  cannot  understand. 
Surely  He  would  not  have  done  so  if  it  had  not 


134  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

been  necessary.  And  surely  there  is  no  necessity 
with  God  which  is  not  a  means  of  ultimate  and 
transcendent  good: — 

"At  last,  far  off,  at  last  to  all." 

But  now  that  evil  is  here,  with  all  its  attendant 
train  of  suffering,  God  is  with  us,  not  as  our 
enemy  in  causing  the  pain,  but  as  our  Father  and 
Friend  in  sharing  it. 

There  is  nothing  that  we  regret  with  pure 
hearts  that  He  does  not  regret  far  more.  There 
is  nothing  that  makes  us  honestly  sorry  that 
does  not  give  Him  an  infinitely  deeper  sorrow. 
Do  we  grieve  as  we  think  of  the  anguish  of  the 
many  generations  of  the  children  of  men  ?  He 
grieves  far  more  profoundly.  "  His  soul  was 
grieved,"  says  the  prophet,  "  for  the  misery  of 
Israel."  Does  it  fill  us  with  pain  that  death  has 
entered  this  beautiful  world,  and  walks  to  and 
fro  among  the  springing  flowers  and  the  sing- 
ing birds,  and  touches  our  fairest  and  loveliest 
with  his  cold  hand  and  lays  them  low?  The 
pain,  the  pity,  the  deep  regret  of  it  all  is  infi- 
nitely greater  in  the  Divine  heart.  Death  as  we 
know  it,  on  the  earthly  side — the  suffering,  the 
separation,  the  darkness — death  as  we  know  it  and 
shrink  from  it,  is  God's  enemy  just  as  truly  as  it  is 


THE  ANGEL  OF  GOD'S  FACE  135 

ours.  "The  last  enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed 
13  death."  It  is  the  other  side  of  death,  the  side 
that  we  do  not  know,  the  side  that  God  has 
made  to  counterbalance  and  conquer  this  dark 
and  painful  side,  the  messenger  that  leads  the 
soul  into  peace  and  light  and  joy,  that  is  God's 
friend,  God's  angel.  And  while  we  suffer  in  this 
world  from  death  as  a  bereavement,  an  affliction, 
while  we  endure  the  manifold  ills  that  flesh  is 
heir  to,  while  we  are  disappointed  and  troubled 
and  distressed,  God  is  with  us  as  one  who  bears 
our  g-rief  and  carries  our  sorrow. 

Do  you  say  that  it  is  hard  to  think  of  God  as 
thus  entering  into  our  afflictions  ?  Yes,  it  is  hard. 
And  yet  there  were  men  even  before  Christ  came, 
as  our  text  proves,  who  rose  to  the  nobility  of 
that  thought  of  a  sympathizing  God  who  suffers 
with  us.  And  if  we  believe  that  God  revealed 
Himself  in  Christ  to  draw  the  world  unto  Him- 
self, then  surely  it  ought  to  be  possible  for  us  to 
lay  firm  hold  upon  the  thought  of  the  Divine 
sympathy  in  all  our  afflictions. 

What  sorrow  is  equal  to  His  sorrow  ?  Do  you 
think  His  tears  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus  did  not 
come  from  the  heart?  Though  He  knew  all — 
resurrection,  immortality,  heaven — yet  Jesus  wept 
at  the  sadness  of  death.     Do  you  think  His  tears 


136  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

over  Jerusalem  did  not  come  from  the  heart? 
Though  He  knew  all — the  victory  of  His  atoning 
death,  the  triumph  of  His  faith — yet  Jesus  lifted 
up  His  voice  and  wept  over  the  sufferings  of  men. 
Do  you  think  the  drops  of  blood  in  the  garden 
did  not  come  from  the  heart  ?  Though  He  knew 
all — the  merit  of  His  sacrifice,  the  joy  of  His  re- 
ward, the  glory  of  His  kingdom — yet  the  soul  of 
Jesus  was  exceeding  sorrowful  even  unto  death. 
Ah,  my  friend,  don't  you  know  the  meaning  of 
this  ?  When  we  look  on  Jesus  Christ  as  the  re- 
vealer  of  the  heart  of  God,  what  affliction  of  our 
mortal  life  is  there  into  which  it  does  not  bring 
God  as  our  fellow-sufferer  ?  "  In  all  our  afflic- 
tion He  is  afflicted,  and  the  angel  of  His  face 
saves  us." 

II.  God's  presence  with  us  in  the  time  of  trou- 
ble is  then  a  personal,  gracious,  loving,  sympa- 
thizing presence.  But  more  than  this,  it  is  a  cov- 
enanted presence,  it  is  promised  and  promised 
for  ever,  for  all  time  and  in  every  experience. 
The  text  teaches  us  this.  The  angel  of  His 
face  is  none  other  than  the  angel  of  the  cove- 
nant in  whom  God's  pledge  to  be  with  His  people 
for  ever  is  redeemed.  Turn  back  to  the  ancient 
Scriptures  and  hear  Him  give  this  pledge  to 
Jacob :  "  Behold,  I  am  with  thee,  and  will  keep 


THE  ANGEL  OF  GOD'S  FACE  137 

thee  in  all  places  whither  thou  goest,  ...  for  I 
will  not  leave  thee,  until  I  have  done  that  which 
I  have  spoken  to  thee  of."  Hear  His  promise  to 
Joshua ;  "  I  will  not  fail  thee  nor  forsake  thee." 
Hear  His  promise  through  Isaiah :  "  I  the  Lord 
will  hear  thee ;  I  the  God  of  Israel  will  not  for- 
sake thee.  When  thou  passest  through  the 
waters  I  will  be  with  thee,  and  through  the 
rivers  they  shall  not  overflow  thee.  And  even 
to  your  old  age  I  am  He,  and  even  to  hoar  hairs 
will  I  carry  you ;  I  have  made  and  I  will  bear, 
even  I  will  carry  and  will  deliver  you."  And 
then  hear  the  pledge  of  Jesus  Christ :  "  I  will 
not  leave  you  comfortless :  I  will  come  to  you. 
Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world." 

As  long  as  God  lives  and  our  souls  live,  so  long 
does  this  pledge  stand.  It  is  true,  we  cannot 
always  feel  this  presence.  But  we  can  always 
know  that  it  is  there,  always  think  of  it,  so  long 
as  thought  endures,  always  rest  upon  it  for  ever 
and  for  ever :  and  the  reason  why  this  promise  is 
given  is  that  we  may  hold  fast  to  this  truth. 

There  may  be  a  moment  in  the  very  depth  of 
sorrow  and  anguish  when  the  presence  is  hidden 
from  us.  But  it  is  not  because  God  is  absent. 
It  is  because  we  are  stunned,  unconscious.     It  is 


138  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

like  passing  through  a  surgical  operation.  The 
time  comes  for  the  ordeal.  The  anaesthetic  is 
ready.  You  are  about  to  become  unconscious. 
You  stretch  out  your  hand  to  your  friend, 
"  Don't  leave  me,  don't  forsake  me."  The  last 
thing  that  you  feel  is  the  clasp  of  that  hand, 
the  last  thing  you  see  is  the  face  of  that  friend. 
Then  a  moment  of  darkness,  a  blank — and  the 
first  thing  you  feel  is  the  hand;  the  first  thing 
you  see  is  the  face  of  love  again.  So  the  angel 
of  God's  face  stands  by  us,  bends  above  us, 
and  we  may  know  that  He  will  be  there  even 
when  all  else  fails.  Our  friends  die,  our  posses- 
sions take  wings  and  fly  away,  our  honors  fade, 
our  strength  fails,  but  beside  every  moldering 
ruin  and  every  open  grave,  in  the  fading  light  of 
every  sunset,  in  the  gathering  gloom  of  every 
twilight,  amid  the  mists  that  shroud  the  great 
ocean  beyond  the  verge  of  mortal  life,  there  is  one 
sweet,  mighty  voice  that  says,  "  I  will  never  leave 
thee,  nor  forsake  thee.  In  all  thy  afflictions  I  will 
be  with  thee,  and  the  angel  of  My  face  shall  save 
thee." 

III.  Well,  then,  if  this  is  how  we  are  to  think 
of  the  presence  of  God  in  our  lives,  as  a  personal, 
sympathizing,  loving  presence,  pledged  to  us  for 
all  times  and  all  possible   occasions,  it  ought  to 


THE  ANGEL  OF  GOD'S  FACE  139 

be  easy  for  us  to  see  how  it  will  save  us.  The 
power  of  such  a  thought  of  God  always  with  us, 
and  most  of  all  in  our  times  of  weakness  and  trial 
and  trouble,  must  be  a  redeeming,  delivering,  up- 
bearing power, 

I.  It  must  save  us,  first  of  all,  from  the  sense 
of  meanness,  littleness,  unworthiness  which 
embitters  Hfe  and  makes  sorrow  doubly  hard  to 
bear.  The  presence  of  God  must  bring  a  sense 
of  dignity,  of  elevation  into  our  existence.  It 
was  a  great  king  who  once  said,  "  Where  I  sleep, 
there  is  the  palace."  The  life  that  has  the  pres- 
ence of  God  in  it  can  be  neither  trivial  nor 
unworthy. 

Our  daily  existence  sometimes  seems  to  us  a 
thing  of  small  account.  It  appears  to  be  made  up 
of  endless  petty  tasks  and  a  few  petty  pleasures 
and  many  petty  trials.  It  produces  no  great  re- 
sults, makes  no  large  mark  on  the  page  of  history, 
contributes  no  striking  figure  to  the  panorama  of 
the  world.  We  just  go  on  attending  to  the  details 
of  business  in  a  small  office,  or  keeping  house  in 
a  quiet  street ;  and  the  children  are  a  httle  larger 
this  year  than  they  were  last  year;  and  we  have  a 
few  more  gray  hairs ;  and  we  have  managed  to 
meet  our  obligations  fairly  well.  But  we  wonder 
what  we  were  sent  into  the  world  for. 


I40  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

My  friend,  you  were  sent  into  the  world  to  live 
your  life  with  God.  If  He  can  come  into  this  life 
of  yours  you  ought  to  think  well  of  it.  It  ought 
to  be  adorned  and  ennobled  by  His  presence. 
All  its  daily  duties,  all  its  small  delights — for 
there  is  no  life  so  narrow  that  it  has  not  room  for 
the  spirit  of  joy — should  seem  to  you  refined  and 
uphfted  by  the  Divine  participation  in  them.  Let 
us  get  out  of  the  false  notion  that  the  only  way 
to  be  dignified  is  to  be  distinguished,  the  only  way 
to  be  good  is  to  be  heroic,  the  only  way  to  help 
the  world  is  to  make  a  sensation,  the  only  way  to 
serve  Christ  is  to  do  something  big.  Let  us  learn 
that  the  whole  Christian  life,  whether  it  is  lived  on 
a  scale  of  miles  or  of  inches,  is  a  beautiful  and 
worthy  life,  and  that  what  God  requires  of  us  is 
not  to  accomplish  anything  wonderful,  but  to  do 
justice  and  love  mercy  and  walk  humbly  with  our 
God.  God  has  two  thrones — one  in  the  highest 
heaven,  one  in  the  lowliest  heart. 

2.  The  angel  of  God's  face  saves  us  also  from 
that  feeling  of  reckless  indifference,  dumb  care- 
lessness, which  sometimes  tempts  us  to  let  our 
lives  go  blundering  and  stumbling  along  on  the 
lower  levels.  It  brings  a  new  conscience  into 
our  thoughts,  desires,  and  efforts,  awakens  a 
noble  dissatisfaction  with  our  half-hearted  work. 


THE  ANGEL  OF  GOD'S  FACE  141 

quickens  within  us  a  longing  to  be  more  fit  for 
the  Divine  companionship. 

It  is  one  mark  of  a  good  friend  that  he  makes 
you  wish  to  be  at  your  best  while  you  are  with 
him.  The  blessed  persons  who  have  this  influ- 
ence are  made  in  the  likeness  of  that  heavenly 
Friend  whose  presence  is  at  once  a  stimulus  and 
a  help  to  purity  of  heart  and  nobleness  of  de- 
meanor. A  man's  reputation  is  what  his  fellow- 
men  think  of  him.  A  man's  character  is  what 
God  knows  of  him.  When  we  feel  that  the  angel 
of  His  face  is  with  us,  a  careless  life,  a  superficial 
life  no  longer  satisfies  us.  We  long  to  be  pure 
in  heart,  strong  in  purpose,  clean  in  deed,  because 
we  know  that  nothing  else  will  satisfy  Him. 

3.  The  angel  of  God's  face  saves  us  from  the 
sense  of  weakness,  ignorance,  incompetence, 
which  often  overwhelms  us  in  the  afflictions  of 
life.  We  feel  not  only  that  we  are  powerless  to  pro- 
tect ourselves  against  trouble,  but  that  we  are  not 
able  to  get  the  good  out  of  it  that  ought  to  come 
to  us.  We  cannot  interpret  our  sorrows  aright. 
We  cannot  see  the  real  meaning  of  them.  We 
cannot  reach  our  hand  through  the  years  to  catch 
"  the  far-off  interest  of  tears."  We  say  to  ourselves 
in  despair,  "  God  only  knows  what  it  means." 
And  if  we  do  not  believe  that  God  is  with  us,  then 


142  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

that  thought  shuts  us  up  in  the  darkness,  puts  the 
interpretation  of  the  mystery  far  away  from  us, 
locks  us  up  in  the  prison  house  of  sorrow  and 
leaves  the  key  in  heaven.  But  if  we  believe  that 
God  is  with  us,  then  the  word  of  despair  becomes 
a  word  of  hope.  "  God  only  knows  " — yes,  but 
God  truly  knows,  and  He  is  with  us  to  teach  us. 
He  is  overruling  our  trouble  so  that  it  shall  turn 
to  good  for  us  and  for  those  whom  we  love  and 
for  all  the  world.  He  knows  the  joy  and  peace 
that  have  come  to  those  whom  we  have  lost,  and 
He  bids  us  sorrow  not  for  them  as  those  who 
have  no  hope.  He  has  undertaken  to  be  our 
Guide,  our  Teacher,  our  Master,  through  all  the 
sorrow  of  this  mortal  life.  He  is  making  the  pres- 
ent light  afflictions  work  out  for  us  a  far  more 
exceeding  weight  of  glory.  He  is  making  us  per- 
fect through  suffering. 

This  is  what  He  says  to  us  in  Christ :  "  In  the 
world  ye  shall  have  tribulations :  but  be  of  good 
cheer ;  I  have  overcome  the  world."  Yes,  sorrow 
is  real,  sorrow  is  bitter,  but  sorroiv  zvith  God  is 
the  path  that  leads  to  a  larger,  richer  life. 

4.  The  angel  of  God's  face  saves  us  from  the 
sense  of  loneliness,  which  is  unbearable.  Com- 
panionship is  essential  to  happiness.  A  solitary 
Eden  would  have  been  no  Paradise.     The  deepest 


THE  ANGEL  OF  GOD'S  FACE  143 

of  all  miseries  is  the  sense  of  absolute  isolation. 
There  are  moments  in  the  experience  of  most  of 
us  when  the  mysterious  consciousness  of  the  law 
which  made  all  human  souls  separate,  Hke  islands, 

"  And  bade  betwixt  their  shores  to  be 
The  unplumb'd,  salt,  estranging  sea," 

fills  US  with  heaviness  of  heart.  In  this  painful 
solitude  the  present  friendship  of  God  is  the  only 
sure  consolation.  Nothing  can  divide  us  from 
Him — not  misunderstanding,  nor  coldness,  nor 
selfishness,  nor  scorn — for  none  of  these  things 
are  possible  to  Him.  Nothing  can  divide  us  from 
Him  except  our  own  sin,  and  that  He  has  forgiven 
and  taken  away  and  blotted  out  by  His  great 
mercy  in  Christ. 

A  few  years  ago  a  man  of  great  talent,  famous 
for  his  eloquence,  but  even  better  known  for  the 
entire  unbelief  in  God  which  he  proclaimed,  was 
called  to  deliver  a  funeral  address  over  the  grave 
of  his  brother.  In  words  of  sombre  pathos  he 
compared  this  life  to  a  narrow,  green  valley  be- 
tween the  cold  peaks  of  two  eternities.  We  walk 
here  for  a  little  while  in  company  with  those 
whom  we  love.  Then  our  hands  are  loosed  and 
our  companions  vanish.     We  can  see  but  a  little 


144  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

way.  Beyond  the  encircling  hills  all  is  gloom 
and  nothingness. 

How  different  is  the  voice  of  one  whose  heart 
has  known  and  trusted  the  angel  of  the  face  of 
God !  "  Yea,  though  I  walk  through  the  valley 
of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil :  for 
Thou  art  with  me ;  Thy  rod  and  Thy  staff  they 
comfort  me." 

Companionship  is  the  one  thing  in  the  world 
which  is  absolutely  essential  to  happiness.  The 
human  heart  needs  fellowship  more  than  anything 
else,  fellowship  which  is  elevated  and  enduring, 
stronger  and  purer  than  itself,  and  centered  in  that 
which  death  cannot  change.  All  its  springs  are 
in  God.  Without  Him  life  is  a  failure  and  all 
beyond  is  a  blank.  Even  reason  perceives  that 
the  recognition  of  His  being  and  presence  makes 
life  as  different  from  that  which  either  theoretical 
or  practical  atheism  can  produce,  as  light  is 
from  darkness.  There  is  absolutely  nothing  that 
man  cannot  do  without,  except  God.  With  Him 
happiness  is  possible  anywhere  and  always.  In 
deepest  perils  and  darkest  prisons,  in  the  languor 
of  sickness  and  the  loneliness  of  sorrow,  in  the 
narrow  house  of  poverty  and  the  fiery  furnace  of 
pain,  on  the  cross  of  disgrace  and  in  the  black 
shadow   of  death,  men    and   women    have   been 


THE  ANGEL  OF  GOD'S  FACE  145 

happy  because  God  was  with  them.  Yea,  they 
have  sung  praises  so  that  the  other  prisoners  have 
heard  them.  Call  to  mind  your  own  experience. 
How  often  has  the  angel  of  His  face  delivered 
you  !  How  often  have  you  trembled,  in  the  dis- 
tance, at  the  chained  lions  between  which  you 
passed  unharmed  into  House  Beautiful.  How 
often  have  you  said  of  evil :  "  This  will  surely 
destroy  me."  Yet  you  found  when  the  trouble 
came  that  you  had  strength  given  you  to  bear  it, 
and  that  you  came  out  of  it  as  one  returns  from 
a  perilous  and  difficult  journey  with  a  friend,  with 
new  memories  of  companionship  and  new  proofs 
of  love. 

We  talk  of  our  possessions — of  what  we  own. 
What  are  they  all  compared  with  the  presence 
and  friendship  of  God? 

The  earth  shall  soon  dissolve  like  snow, 

The  sun  forbear  to  shine, 
But  God,  who  called  me  here  below, 

Shall  be  for  ever  mine." 
10 


VIII 
REAL  LIFE 


VIII 

REAL   LIFE 

"  Nevertheless  I  live ;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me :  and 
the  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son 
of  God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me." — Gal.  ii.  20. 

St.  Paul  is  here  telling  secrets,  unveiling  hidden 
things.  Beneath  that  knowledge  of  the  facts  and 
laws  of  physical  life  which  we  call  science,  there 
is  another  and  a  deeper  knowledge  of  the  true 
fountain  of  life  which  we  call  religion.  Into  this 
knowledge  St.  Paul  leads  us  when  he  says,  "  I 
live;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me.'^ 

Life,  as  we  see  it  with  our  outward  eyes,  is  a 
play,  an  illusion,  a  masquerade.  Men  and  women 
are  going  to  and  fro  on  the  earth,  busy  with  many 
tasks,  pursuing  many  pleasures.  They  come  into 
various  relations  with  one  another  in  business,  in 
society,  in  education,  in  service,  in  government. 
They  are  bound  together  in  organizations,  in 
families,  in  trades,  in  nations ;  they  are  arrayed 
against  one  another  in  rivalries  of  commerce,  of 
poHtics,  of  class  interest.  It  is  like  an  immense 
and  unending  dance.     The  figures  are  curiously 

149 


I50  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

arranged,  intricate,  for  ever  changing — now  peace- 
ful, now  warlike — but  always  the  dance  goes  on, 
tracing  strange  patterns  and  evolving  new  combi- 
nations. The  performers  become  acquainted.  They 
know  one  another's  costumes  and  masks  and  parts. 
They  admire  or  dislike,  they  applaud  or  condemn, 
their  fellows.  They  exchange  greetings,  they 
clasp  hands,  they  turn  and  pass  one  another,  they 
form  new  groups  and  figures,  they  are  for  ever 
meeting  and  parting  for  ever. 

Underneath  this  wonderful  masquerade  are  the 
real  people.  And  among  them  two  great  mys- 
teries are  going  on — two  great  realities,  and  only 
two — the  mystery  of  death  and  the  mystery  of 
life.  These  realities  are  often  hidden  from  us,  lost 
and  forgotten  under  the  veil  of  illusion.  We  give 
ourselves  up  to  the  play  completely  and  mistake 
the  masks  for  the  faces.  We  fancy  that  we  are 
moving  only  in  a  world  of  mere  performers,  skillful 
or  awkward,  rich  or  poor,  friendly  or  hostile,  gay 
or  gloomy.  But  we  forget  that  we  are  really 
moving  in  a  world  of  dying  souls  and  living  souls. 
This  is  what  the  Bible  reveals  to  us.  Its  voice  is 
like  the  bell  which  rings  in  the  midst  of  the 
festivity,  bidding  the  performers  unmask  and 
know  one  another  and  themselves. 

I.  Here  under  this  masquerade  are  dying  souls. 


REAL  LIFE  151 

It  is  appointed  unto  all  men  once  to  die.  Every 
one  must  come  to  the  end  of  his  figure,  take  his 
last  step,  and  vanish.  This  is  a  truism.  But  this 
is  not  what  I  mean. 

It  is  also  appointed  unto  all  men  to  die  daily. 
There  is  a  process  of  perishing  which  goes  on  at 
every  moment  through  all  the  movement,  action, 
exertion  of  life.  At  birth  a  secret  reservoir  of 
vitality  is  filled  for  us.  We  do  not  know  how 
much  it  contains.  But  every  day  we  draw  out  a 
certain  portion.  We  cannot  tell  how  much  is 
left,  but  certainly  less  to-day  than  there  was  yes- 
terday. It  was  not  the  last  voyage  that  wore  out 
the  steamship.  The  first  voyage  did  it  just  as 
truly.  When  you  wind  up  your  new  watch  you 
begin  to  use  it  up.  The  first  turn  that  tightens 
the  spring  would  be  the  turn  to  break  it,  if  you 
could  transpose  it  from  its  place  at  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  of  the  process.  At  every  step 
something  departs  from  us.  With  every  smile 
something  fades.  This  also  is  a  truism.  But  this 
is  not  what  I  mean. 

The  truth  that  presses  upon  me  is  that  there  is 
an  absorption,  a  sinking,  a  spending  of  the  soul 
in  this  limited,  perishing  existence,  a  gradual  los- 
ing of  the  soul,  a  secret  dying  of  the  soul,  which 
is  going  on  in  the  world  all  the  time — and  this 


152  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

is  the  real  death.  To  have  our  affection,  our 
controlling,  inmost  desire  set  on  earthly  things  is 
to  belong  to  them.  To  belong  to  them  is  to  fade 
with  them.  Infidelity  is  practical  faith  in  things 
seen  and  unfaith  in  things  unseen.  Keep  your 
eyes  shut  long  enough  and  you  will  go  blind. 
Keep  your  soul  earth-bound  long  enough  and 
you  will  sink  into  dust.  Sin  is  the  preference  of 
the  sensual  to  the  spiritual.  The  preference  be- 
comes a  habit,  the  habit  a  character,  the  character 
a  destiny.  To  be  carnally  minded  is  death,  but  to 
be  spiritually  minded  is  life  and  peace. 

II.  Life  and  peace — peace  in  life,  and  life  in 
peace — that  is  the  other  great  reality  under  the 
masquerade.  How  quickly  and  how  gladly  our 
hearts  turn  to  it : — 

"  Whatever  crazy  sorrow  saith, 
No  life  that  breathes  with  human  breath 
Hath  ever  truly  longed  for  death. 

**  'Tis  life  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant, 
Oh,  life,  not  death,  for  which  we  pant, 
More  life  and  fuller  that  we  want.' ' 

This  is  the  second  great  mystery  that  is  going  on 
in  the  world.  The  satisfaction  of  this  want,  the 
quenching  of  this  thirst  for  immortality,  the  quick- 
ening of  a  new  and  more  abundant  life  which  is 


REAL  LIFE  153 

neither  bound  to,  nor  dependent  upon,  the  vanish- 
ing unreaHties  of  the  masquerade  of  sense — this  is 
the  great,  beautiful  secret  that  St.  Paul  tells  us  in 
the  text.  This  indeed  is  the  secret  of  the  New 
Testament.  The  sacred  Scripture  of  the  Egyptians 
was  called  "The  Book  of  the  Dead."  Our  Scripture 
ought  to  be  called  "  The  Book  of  the  Living." 
Its  central  message  is  that  life  and  immortality 
are  brought  to  light  in  Jesus.  "  He  that  believeth 
on  the  Son  hath  everlasting  life  " — not  will  have  it 
in  some  future  world — but  hath  it  even  now  in 
this  vanishing,  perishing  masquerade  of  a  world — 
hath  something  which  makes  life  real  and  earnest 
and  imperishable.  This  is  the  secret  of  Jesus  ;  a 
vital  secret.  *' I  am  come,"  said  He,  "that  they 
might  have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more 
abundantly." 

What  was  it  that  He  said  to  the  tempter  in 
the  wilderness  ?  It  was  the  denial  of  the  great 
heresy  of  worldliness.  "  Man  shall  not  live  by 
bread  alone."  And  what  was  the  explanation 
of  this  saying  that  He  gave  in  the  sixth  chapter 
of  St.  John's  Gospel  ?  It  was  the  cure  of  the 
great  error  of  other-worldliness,  the  waiting  for 
immortality  until  we  come  into  some  future  state 
of  existence.  "  I  am  the  bread  of  life.  He  that 
cometh    unto  me  shall  never   hunger.     And   he 


154  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

that  believeth  on  me  shall  never  thirst.  Whoso 
eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood  hath 
eternal  life.  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you, 
they  are  spirit,  and  they  are  life." 

Surely  this  is  a  mystery.  But  just  as  surely  it 
is  a  reality.  Inward,  men  and  women  are  being 
renewed  day  by  day,  while  outward,  men  and 
women  are  perishing.  Souls  are  being  born 
again  continually,  not  by  the  will  of  the  flesh 
nor  by  the  will  of  man,  but  by  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  which  liveth  and  abideth  for  ever — which 
word  is  Christ.  Men  are  living  by  bread,  but 
not  by  bread  alone.  Underneath  the  bounties 
which  supply  their  temporal  needs  they  are 
touching  the  hand  which  feeds  their  spiritual 
longings.  In  the  wilderness  they  are  finding 
heavenly  manna.  Living  waters  flow  from  the 
riven  rocks  of  time  and  sense.  Through  the  with- 
ering and  fading  leaves  of  mortality,  as  in  a  secret 
and  perpetual  springtide,  their  souls  are  pierced 
and  quickened  with 

"  Bright  shoots  of  everlastingness." 

Of  this  life  Christ  is  the  giver  and  the  source. 
Christ  is  the  bread  of  God  which  cometh  down 
from  heaven  and  giveth  life  unto  the  world. 
Christ  is  the  living  vine,  and  through  Him  flows 


REAL  LIFE 


155 


every  drop  of  immortality  that  renews  the  human 
branches  and  makes  them  glad  with  blossoms  and 
fertile  in  everlasting  fruits. 

If  I  should  try  to  tell  you  how  He  does  this  I 
could  but  repeat  the  old  story,  and  it  would  take 
for  ever.  For  it  is  as  long  and  as  varied  as  the 
wide  and  deep  experience  of  humanity.  It  reaches 
away  back  into  the  past,  to  those  twilight  days 
when  the  hope  of  Christ  was  the  light  of  prophets 
and  psalmists,  and  they  watched  for  His  coming 
as  those  that  watch  for  the  morning.  It  reaches 
away  out  into  the  darkness  of  heathen  lands, 
where  the  longing  for  a  Saviour,  the  blind  crav- 
ing and  groping  for  a  Redeemer,  is  the  sign  and 
token  of  a  hidden  kingdom  waiting  for  its  King : — 

"  Far  and  wide,  though  all  unknowing, 
Pants  for  Thee  each  human  breast; 
Human  tears  for  Thee  are  flowing, 
Human  hearts  in  Thee  would  rest." 

It  reaches  down  through  the  ages,  touching 
the  infinite  fullness  of  life  that  men  have  found  in 
Christ,  as  He  has  shown  them  the  glory  of  God, 
the  beauty  of  holiness,  the  victory  of  self-sacrifice, 
the  hatefulness  of  sin,  the  deceitfulness  of  pride 
and  avarice  and  ambition  and  lust,  the  trust- 
worthiness   of    pity   and    meekness    and    purity 


156  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

and  goodness,  the  victory  that  overcometh  the 
world,  the  blessedness  of  sorrow,  the  humility  of 
joy,  the  immortality  of  love — yes,  and  more  than 
this — as  He  has  communicated  Himself  to  them 
through  the  open  channels  of  faith,  and  made  their 
broken,  imperfect  characters  reflect  some  like- 
ness to  His  own  flawless,  perfect  character.  This 
would  be  the  story  of  the  giving  of  life  by  Jesus 
Christ  to  human  souls ;  and  I  could  never  tell  it 
to  you.  No,  it  can  never  be  all  told  until  those 
whom  He  is  redeeming  out  of  every  tribe  and 
kindred  and  tongue  are  gathered  about  Him  to 
sing  His  praise.  The  whole  story  of  real  life  will 
not  be  completed  until  hfe  itself,  in  all  its  myriad- 
souled  perfection,  is  consummated,  and  death  is 
dead. 

But  two  things  in  that  story,  two  things  which 
I  believe  are  always  repeated  in  the  highest  Chris- 
tian experience,  stand  revealed  in  this  saying  of 
the  apostle. 

The  life  that  I  nozv  live  in  the  flesJi  I  live  by  the 
faith  of  the  Son  of  God^  who  loved  ine  and  gave 
Himself  for  me.  "  In  the  flesh  ":  that  is  the  out- 
ward form  of  it.  A  human  form,  an  actual  form, 
an  existence  of  present  duties  and  labors  and 
conflicts  and  sorrows  and  joys.  That  is  the 
shell,  the  vessel   in  which   it  is   contained.     But 


REAL  LIFE  157 

the  life  itself,  the  secret,  inward  spring  of  vitality 
comes  from  believing  that  Jesus  loved  me  and 
gave  Himself  for  me,  and  that  He  who  held 
me  in  His  heart  and  died  for  me  on  the  cross  is 
none  other  than  the  Son  of  God. 

Don't  you  see  how  this  faith  quickens  real 
life  ?  Don't  you  see  how  it  is  life,  new,  heaven- 
born,  everlasting  ? 

I.  Surely  there  is  nothing  else  in  all  the  world 
so  life-giving  as  the  knowledge  that  we  are  loved. 
Even  in  our  human  relationships,  when  this  knowl- 
edge comes  to  us  it  lifts  us  out  of  the  dust  and 
thrills  us  with  vital  power.  How  many  a  heart 
has  been  revived  and  emancipated,  enlarged  and 
ennobled,  by  knowing  that  somewhere  in  the 
world  there  was  another  heart  moving  toward  it 
in  the  tenderness  and  glory  of  love.  And  when 
that  love  takes  the  form  of  sacrifice,  when  it  re- 
signs and  endures  and  suffers  for  our  sake,  then 
its  power  to  move  and  quicken  us  is  deepened  and 
enhanced  a  thousandfold.  Even  when  the  sacrifice 
has  been  made  without  our  knowledge,  when  the 
evidence  of  it  comes  to  us  long  after  it  is  over, 
when  we  turn  over  the  letters  or  the  diary  of 
some  one  who  has  gone  from  us,  and  it  flashes 
upon  us  that  we  have  been  carried  tenderly 
upon   a   loving   heart,   that   for   our   sake   some 


158  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

sharp  pain  has  been  borne,  some  great  offering 
has  been  made,  this  flash  of  knowledge  is  Hke 
the  waking  of  a  new  Hfe  in  our  hearts.  This  is 
what  it  means  to  see  Jesus  Christ  as  our  Saviour. 
It  is  to  know  that  His  love  for  us  was  so  great 
that  He  died  upon  the  cross  to  save  us  from  our 
sins.  He  loved  you  and  me  personally.  He  died 
for  you  and  me  personally.  If  there  were  but  one 
sinner  in  all  the  world,  and  I  were  that  sinner, 
still  Jesus  Christ  would  have  loved  me  and  died 
for  me. 

There  was  a  prisoner  in  one  of  the  dungeons 
at  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution  who  was 
much  beloved  by  many  people.  But  there  was 
one  love  which  surpassed  them  all.  It  was  the 
love  of  his  father ;  and  this  was  the  proof  of  it. 
The  two  men  bore  the  same  name,  and  when  the 
son's  name  was  called  one  day  among  those  who 
were  to  die,  the  father  answered  to  it,  and  took 
his  place,  and  went  to  the  scaffold,  and  laid  his 
head  upon  the  block.  The  blade  of  the  guillotine 
flashed ;  the  head  fell ;  the  father  died  for  the  son 
he  loved.  That  is  what  Christ  has  done  for  us. 
When  we  believe  this  we  know  what  love  means. 
When  we  know  what  love  means  we  feel  the  only 
real  life. 

II.  But  think  what  it  means  to  know  that  this 


REAL  LIFE  159 

love  which  has  done  so  much  for  us  is  the  love 
of  the  Son  of  God.  It  sets  the  seal  of  eternity 
upon  it.  It  brings  the  power  of  almightiness  into 
it.  It  lifts  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus,  and  lifts  us  with 
it,  up  into  the  very  heart  of  God.  "  It  is  God  that 
justifieth.  Who  is  he  that  condemneth  ?  It  is 
Christ  that  died,  yea  rather,  that  is  risen  again, 
who  is  ever  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also 
maketh  intercession  for  us."  To  believe  that  this 
love  of  Christ,  from  which  nothing  can  separate 
us,  is  none  other  than  the  Divine  Love,  the  same 
that  created  us,  and  created  us  for  Himself;  to 
believe  that  this  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  none  other 
than  the  Divine  sacrifice,  the  one  event  in  all  the 
world  that  reveals  God  most  perfectly — surely 
this  is  a  faith  so  deep,  so  wide,  so  high  that  the 
more  we  feel  it  the  less  we  can  utter  it ;  it  is  a 
life.  Therefore  it  cannot  be  spoken  or  explained. 
It  must  be  lived.  And  if  we  live  it  we  know  that 
we  shall  never  die. 

Come  then,  and  let  us  testify  to  this  hidden 
life,  and  renew  it,  and  refresh  it,  in  communion 
with  Christ.  In  this  world  we  must  be  either 
dying  daily,  or  daily  living  in  immortality ;  wither- 
ing away  in  dreams  or  awaking  to  glorious  reali- 
ties ;  perishing  with  the  sensual  or  surviving  with 
the  spiritual;   vanquished  or  victorious.     Let  us 


i6o  THE  OPEN  DOOR 

not  lose  our  life  in  the  world,  but  let  us  find  it  in 
Christ.  Let  us  come  near  to  Him  and  touch 
Him  and  join  ourselves  to  Him.  Then  be  still  for 
a  moment — utterly  still  in  silent  faith — until  we 
feel  the  pulse  of  His  love  like  the  throbbing  of 
our  heart.  Then  go  forth  to  live  in  the  world — 
bravely,  earnestly,  happily — because  we  know 
that  love  is  the  real  life,  and  the  love  of  the 
Son  of  God  in  us  is  the  real  life  that  can  never 
die. 


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